


Tiptoes

by skittyTail



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sleepovers, babieeesss, dumb teenagers omg, poorly timed confessions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-19 16:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2395634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittyTail/pseuds/skittyTail
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lotta little things going on, all surrounding these two dummies who can't figure their feelings out the right way, all from the perspective of the bright orange ray of sunshine who can't stop thinking about his best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic’s gonna basically be a bottle fic--it’s set in the canon scenario, but theres no direct connections to canon plot. It’s more self-indulgent than anything, really, but feel free to enjoy it as you might. <3

Toss, spike; toss, spike; toss, spike…

The team was split into two lines, spiking tosses one-by-one. One line was led by Sugawara, while the line that Hinata was in was being rushed along by Kageyama. Hinata was fairly used to Kageyama’s impatient nature, especially during practices, but today he seemed to be going a bit overboard, considering that there were no actual games coming up for a long while. Hinata had already started to lose count of how many times the line had cycled around.

It seemed that Hinata wasn’t the only one to notice the rushing, because Tanaka was the first to speak up. “Chill out!” he shouted to Kageyama. “Wearin’ us out isn’t gonna make us any better!”

Kageyama shot a glare at Tanaka that made Hinata shudder right to his core. Despite the intimidation, though, Hinata piped up in Tanaka’s defense. “He’s right, y’know! Lookit how much more reasonable Suga’s being with the others!”

Hinata saw Kageyama’s face loosen a little bit, but the setter’s expression returned to a scowl so quickly that Hinata wondered if he’d just imagined the sight. The little build up of hope that had gathered in Hinata’s chest deflated when Kageyama’s pause ended, and his hasty pace simply continued.

Hinata sighed and shared a disappointed look with Tanaka as they shuffled along in time with the line’s movements. After a handful of fruitless attempts at calling Kageyama out, they both gave in and decided that complaining wouldn’t work; they would just have to face the looming wall of overzealous tosses until the end of practice. 

Ever since he’d gone back to setting, Kageyama hadn’t acknowledged any of his teammates. He seemed exclusively focused on the balls, his gaze fixed on each one as it was sent into the hand of the next spiker in line. His grumpy countenance never changed, either. In fact, it only seemed to deepen as the practice ticked on. Every time that Hinata got to the front of the line, Kageyama looked exponentially more angry than before. Hinata wanted to be concerned, but it was a little too amusing to take too seriously. By the time that the practice had come to an end, Kageyama was staring at a ball in his hands like it had disgraced his family.

Of course, no one wanted to break him out of the trance that glued him in place, so it was Hinata who had to get his attention. Swallowing back the little seed of worry that had caught in his throat, Hinata stepped up to Kageyama and lightly tapped his shoulder. “Erm, Kageyama… we need to help clean up.”

Kageyama jumped and dropped his ball, earning a few odd looks from the teammates that were around them. Much to Hinata’s relief, he looked more confused than he did angry. Hinata wondered what he’d been thinking about that had distracted him so much. Before Hinata got a chance to ask about it, however, Kageyama had escaped to the other side of the gym to help the others. 

Narrowing his eyes, Hinata headed over to join him. He never got a single word in with Kageyama as he tried to follow the slippery setter around the gym, helping with cleaning as he went, and the evident evasiveness of Kageyama was making his curiosity swell. It was close to bursting when he finally caught up with Kageyama, following him outside into the gloomy afternoon. 

“Kageyamaaaaaaaa!” Hinata scurried up to Kageyama and cut him off, pouting at him. “What’re you doing? You’re like a billion times more grumpy than usual!”

The setter pursed his lips and sidestepped Hinata. “Maybe you’re being more annoying than usual.”

“No way! You don’t avoid me like that when I’m bugging you! You just tough it out and whine about it!” As Hinata pointed this out, Kageyama’s expression changed a fraction. “C’mon,” Hinata commanded, grabbing Kageyama’s arm. “You’re just in a bad mood. I’ll get you some ice cream, and you’ll be better.”

“Huh? Where did you come up with that? I don’t want ice cream!” Kageyama protested, refusing to comply with Hinata’s incessant tugging.

“Yes, you do,” corrected Hinata.

“No, I don’t.”

“You doooo!”

“No. I don’t.”

Hinata puffed out his cheeks, relaxing his grip on Kageyama a bit. This wasn’t working; he needed to change his strategy a bit…

“I’ll race you,” Hinata challenged, putting his hands on his hips. “Last one to the ice cream shop has to buy the other a treat!” Hinata watched with a proud grin on his face as Kageyama tried to resist. He didn’t seem very keen on the idea, but, once his eyes met Hinata’s, there was a flash of competitiveness between them, and they were off. 

Hinata beamed as he sprinted to meet Kageyama’s pace, nearly tripping over his feet in his rush. He lagged a bit behind at first, since he was a bit sore from the extra tough practice. However, as Kageyama passed in front of him, his eyes fell on the setter’s rear, and he felt insulted. There was no way that he was going to spend this run staring at Kageyama’s ass. Fueled by a desire to get past Kageyama’s butt, Hinata pumped his legs harder to catch up with him. He pulled ahead gradually with impressive speed as he got into things, a grin spreading across his face. “Eat my ass,” he taunted over his shoulder as he passed Kageyama. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said that, of all things, but he supposed that he just had butts on the mind. 

Disregarding his focus on butts, Hinata let himself enjoy the lead that he had. He could see the shop getting closer, and he could taste the victory that would come with it. His strides grew bouncier with pride as he neared the goal, but he realized that he’d counted his victory a tad too early when he saw Kageyama gaining on him. Squeaking, Hinata churned his limbs with all of his might, but Kageyama just kept getting closer. By the time that the store was within reach, they were practically on top of each other. They ended up bowling over onto the pavement, falling over each other as they both strained to touch the door before the other. 

Hinata slapped a hand on the door, panting past a lopsided grin. “Hah,” he puffed, sitting up. “I won! You owe me ice cream!” 

When Hinata looked over to Kageyama, he too had his hand on the door. Hinata hadn’t been watching him for the past few seconds, so he actually had no idea who had touched the door first. Kageyama seemed pretty certain that he had, though, judging by his incredulous expression. “You what?!” he howled breathlessly. Oh, hell no! My hand was here centuries before yours was!” Behind the challenging look in his eye, it was clear that Kageyama had regained himself from the distracted person that he’d been at practice. It actually relieved Hinata quite a bit to see that. 

“Of course you didn’t!” Hinata huffed, amusement sparkling under his feisty expression. “You had to push me over just to get to the door!”

Kageyama wrinkled his nose. “I did not push you! You flung yourself on the ground in some sad attempt to get ahead of me!”

“You totally pushed me!” Hinata objected. “You should get me an extra ice cream to make up for your foul play!”

Kageyama’s jaw dropped. “No way! I’m not getting you any ice cream when you didn’t beat me!”

“Yes I did!”

“I got my hand on the door first.” Kageyama looked down his nose at Hinata. While they argued, they both refused to take their hands from the door, as if letting a hand drop would mean admitting defeat. 

“That doesn’t count, ‘cause you have longer limbs than me! I got my whole self to the door first!” Hinata puffed out his cheeks adamantly.

“Only because you fell on your ass!”

“Actually, Kageyama, I fell on my front.”

“So?!”

“I fell on my front because you pushed me!” Hinata jabbed a finger in Kageyama’s direction as if he’d just revealed a stunning mystery. 

Kageyama swatted Hinata’s hand out of the way, raising an eyebrow. “I’ll push you for real if you keep whining.” There was an intimidating aura to Kageyama, but it wasn’t difficult for Hinata to sense the playfulness that was tucked away in there. It was clear that Kageyama was having fun, and that just made things more enjoyable for Hinata.

Smirking, Hinata scooted towards Kageyama. “I don’t think you have the guts,” he jabbed.

“You think so?” Kageyama cocked his head.

Before Kageyama could follow through on the clear threat in his voice, Hinata dived at the setter. Unfortunately, Kageyama had decided to do the same, so they ended up just smacking their heads together and flopping back onto the pavement. “Wow,” Hinata gasped, chuckling and rubbing his forehead. “That hurt really bad.”

“Yeah,” Kageyama agreed. The two of them gave each other a little bit of time to recover from the impact before they nodded at each other, cueing the start of a sloppy wrestling match. Kageyama clearly had the size advantage, but Hinata managed to be exceptionally good at wriggling around like a greased pig, impossible to hold down. As the brawl went on, they rolled over each other again and again across the sidewalk, neither wanting to give up. After a few times of his back hitting the pavement, Hinata had started to get a little worn out. Kageyama was close to pinning him, so he made a ruckus in one final attempt to resist, whining and kicking his feet as Kageyama struggled to keep him still. When Hinata was about to resign, however, Kageyama paused, glancing up to the sky. “Huh…?” Hinata looked up, noticing that the sky was a few shades darker than it had been earlier.

A cold drop hit Hinata’s cheek, and he realized that it was starting to rain. For some reason, it left both himself and Kageyama totally dumbstruck, as if they’d never seen rain before. They both just stayed there, gawking at one another, Kageyama perched on Hinata as the tiny droplets steadily grew into a downpour. Hinata couldn’t begin to understand what had frozen them like that, but he just lay there, staring, an odd feeling coiling in his gut. As he looked at Kageyama, a strange awareness conjured on the edge of his consciousness. He tried to pursue it, but every time he did, it moved farther from the grasp of his thoughts. It felt like he was trying to remember something that had long been in his brain, but didn’t quite want to come out yet. Rain glistened on Hinata’s eyelashes as he and Kageyama stayed in soaking silence, some sort of pull managing to capture them in a moment that might’ve lasted forever, had they not been interrupted.

“For fuck’s sake, just kiss already.”

Hinata yelped and turned to the source of the voice, which had come from the doorway to the ice cream shop. Nishinoya was standing just outside, his wild hair having lost its volume and flopped pathetically onto his forehead from the rain, while a curious looking Asahi stood under the safety of the shop’s awning. 

It took Hinata a moment to gather his thoughts enough to figure out what Noya had been jeering about. He glanced around, furrowing his brow, until his eyes fell on Kageyama, who was red as a tomato. It was… kind of cute sight, really.

“This is a really pretty scene and all, “ Noya pointed out. “But if ya stay out like that, you’ll get really fuckin’ sick.”

A strangled noise came from Kageyama and he shot to his feet, bolting under the awning. Hinata stumbled to his feet and followed, baffled as to why they’d both just stayed out there in the rain. As he joined the others under the protection of the awning, he noticed that he felt considerably light-headed. Perhaps he’d stood up too quickly… 

Noya clapped Hinata on the back as everyone congregated. “Your senior’s watchin’ out for ya, see?” he bubbled, beaming. “I got your back!”

It looked like Asahi had noticed Hinata’s dazed expression, because he stepped forward with a gentle look. “We practically had to step over you two on our way here,” he explained. “We didn’t think you guys would still be scuffling once the rain started, so we were pretty surprised to see you.”

Hinata winced. Asahi’s prediction hadn’t been that off; the fighting had certainly stopped as soon as the rain had kicked in, but Hinata wasn’t really sure what had happened once the wrestling had come to its sudden close. All Hinata could really say surely about the situation was that it had made him feel dizzy and distracted. He couldn’t quite focus on much as he tried to process everything, and the sound of the rain hitting the awning was loud enough to overpower every thought in his mind, as if the words that he wanted to use to describe the scene were cowering in fear of the storm. 

“We got carried away.” Kageyama’s voice broke through Hinata’s dizziness for a moment. “I won, so Hinata owes me ice cream.”

“R-Right, yeah…” Hinata started to slowly drift back to Earth. “...Yeah! Let’s get ice cream!” He perked up as his thoughts returned to normal, pushing what had happened with Kageyama to the back of his head.

“Oh, hell no,” Noya piped up, swatting Hinata on the back of the head. “Your asses are gonna get sick as it is.”

Kageyama narrowed his eyes and stepped up to Noya, squaring his shoulders. “I don’t take orders from people smaller than me,” he growled. Hinata felt like he should’ve been offended by his comment, but probably not as much as Noya was; he seemed like he was about to burst.

Before he could, however, Asahi set a placating hand on his chest. “Then take a suggestion from me,” he said, looking between Kageyama and Hinata. “You two should go home and get some rest.”

Hinata shrunk back, fidgeting. “But… I have to ride my bike home… I dunno if that’s a good idea with the rain like this…”

“Oh, right…” Asahi bit his lip, humming contemplatively. “You… could go to Kageyama’s house until the rain dies down,” he offered, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he seemed to realize how bad of an idea that was. 

Noya, however, seemed absolutely thrilled by the suggestion. “Yeah! Maybe if ya spent some time next to each other, you’d learn how to go five minutes without trying to murder each other in a parking lot!” His comment earned him a warning look from Asahi. 

“If you’re alright with that,” said Asahi to Kageyama. “At least let Hinata stay a while, until the rain gets better.” 

Hinata was positive that Kageyama would immediately turn down the idea. He wouldn’t do that if it was the only option on earth, and there were easily a billion other options that would work in this situation. Nevertheless, Hinata let a little bit of hope creep into his gaze as Kageyama looked over the group, likely prepared to tell everyone off. But, rather than a snide comment about how stupid they were, the tiny, mumbled response that came from Kageyama was a “Fine.” 

Asahi seemed just as shocked by Kageyama’s compliance as Hinata was. Sure, it wasn’t an impossible happening for him to agree, but it was exceptionally odd that he just directly accepted it, rather than working an agreement into a complaint somehow. While Hinata was kind of glad that Kageyama was going to go along with the idea, he couldn’t help but worry a little bit that the distant, spacey Kageyama that had been at practice was starting to return. 

After a short silence, Kageyama raised an eyebrow at the other three. “What’re you gawking at? I said I’d do it.” He looked to Hinata out of the corner of his eye. “Hurry up and come with before I change my mind.”

“R-Right, okay!” Hinata perked up, his worry passing. “Let’s go!” He grabbed Kageyama’s arm and dragged him into the rain and down the road, a bounce in his step.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh my gosh this is so long im sorry i promise they wont all be like this i was just really distracted when i wrote this///// but yea the baes have a cute lil sleepover and hinatas like 'o fuck im a lil gay'

As the pair made their way to Kageyama’s home, the rain soaked through them in a flash. Since Kageyama had been looming over Hinata when the rain had started, he hadn’t gotten particularly wet anywhere besides his back. Now, Hinata’s shirt was dripping wet and clinging to his torso; it was a massive pain in the ass. Of course, Hinata was shivering as well, the rain starting to get a pretty harsh bite of chill to it. He’d tried to cling to Kageyama for warmth a couple times, but the setter had readily pushed him off. Kageyama wasn’t exactly eager to talk with Hinata, either, so the walk was tediously quiet. Despite that, though, Kageyama’s presence in itself managed to lift Hinata’s spirits a bit.

The deluge had grown much stronger by the time that the pair had gotten into Kageyama’s house. Hinata wanted to be relieved that they’d gotten inside before things had gotten worse, but he was pretty sure it made no difference; he was about as wet as he could’ve been. Discarding their sopping shoes and socks, Kageyama and Hinata hurried up to Kageyama’s room.

Hinata felt guilty about the fact that he was dribbling all over Kageyama’s floor, so he furiously scrubbed at himself with the towel that Kageyama had offered him. It didn’t help all that much,   but he continued to wipe and dab at himself with the towel in hopes of keeping himself from accidentally ruining everything around him.

As Hinata brought the damp towel down from his head, his hair marginally less wet, he caught Kageyama’s gaze. Despite the fact that he was unsure of whether the idea to go to Kageyama’s house was really worth it, he was still grateful to Kageyama for going along with it. Because of that, he flashed a grin to the setter as he continued to wipe himself down. “Thanks for doing this, Kageyama,” he chimed.

Kageyama, friendly as ever, just huffed and glanced away from Hinata’s face. As his gaze travelled down, however, his eyes widened a fraction and they started to flicker up and down Hinata. Cocking his head, Hinata watched the display curiously. It was fairly amusing, actually; Kageyama’s expressions were changing erratically and capriciously, accented by a slight coloration rising on his cheeks. After a bit, Hinata couldn’t quite reel in his curiosity. “Kageyama, what’s--”

“Your clothes are soaking wet. You’ve done a horrible job dying off.” Kageyama’s words were rushed out almost as quickly as his eyes were flashing around.

Put off a bit, Hinata blinked vacantly. “Huh…?”

Kageyama shot to his feet and shoved his towel at Hinata as if he’d forgotten that Hinata was still holding his own. “Dry off better.”

“Wh--? Kageyama! I’ve done as much as I can!” Hinata frowned and stomped a foot. “It’s hard to dry my clothes!”

Kageyama just pushed his towel into Hinata’s chest adamantly, a blush evident on his cheeks. Was he angry? Hinata was fairly sure he’d never seen Kageyama so red. “Kageyama, what’s--” Hinata yelped as Kageyama let his towel drop to the floor and gripped the collar of Hinata’s shirt, yanking him forward. A startled jolt ran down Hinata’s spine as he tried to make sense of Kageyama’s actions, noticing with a shiver that the setter’s breath was puffing against his skin. If Hinata was alarmed by this, then Kageyama looked even more shocked, as if his hand had acted on its own accord.

“Y-You…” Kageyama got a strained mutter out through his tension. “You should change into some dry clothes.”

Hinata’s eyebrows drew together. “I don’t… have any dry clothes.”

“You can wear something of mine.” Kageyama sounded immovable, but he wasn’t meeting Hinata’s eyes. After a tremulous silence, Kageyama let go of Hinata and stepped back, his face unreadable. He shuffled over to his closet and fished out a shirt, throwing it to Hinata. He watched as Hinata peeled off his soaked shirt and shrugged on the fresh one. It smelled strongly of Kageyama, which actually made Hinata relax a bit.

“Thank you, I guess,” mumbled Hinata, fidgeting with the collar of the shirt. He found himself sniffing at it without really thinking, and mentally scolded himself for it. It was just Kageyama’s scent; there wasn’t anything special about it; why was he wafting it like a fresh meal? Biting the inside of his cheek as a small punishment for the silly action, Hinata let go of the shirt and let it fall back to where it should’ve been, which was actually considerably past his real collar, since the shirt was too big. It actually showed off Hinata’s collarbones quite nicely.

When Hinata looked back to Kageyama, it seemed like the setter had somehow gotten redder than he’d been before, and his frown had deepened. Was he getting sick from the rain already? “Kageyama, what’s wrong?” asked Hinata innocently, tilting his head to the side.

“Nothing!” Kageyama practically yelped. “I’m fine.”

Hinata narrowed his eyes. “O… kay? Anyway, can I have some dry pants, too? My shorts are all clingy and it’s annoying and gross.” He shimmied out of his shorts and tossed them aside before perking up. “Oh! Nevermind. Your shirt’s long enough to cover all of me!” He grinned and swayed happily, rocking back and forth from his heels to his tiptoes.

There was a long, stagnant silence in which Kageyama stared at Hinata, and Hinata continued to sway cutely, feeling satisfied about how easily he solved his pants dilemma. After a little bit, Kageyama looked up to meet Hinata’s eyes, stopping his little movements. There was something in his gaze that made Hinata’s neck heat up and his heart sputter a bit. They both just held like that, watching each other’s eyes for who knows how long before Kageyama looked away, his jaw clenched. Hinata wondered if he’d done something that he wasn’t aware of.

Once Hinata was safely released from the impromptu stare-off, he felt a little rush go to his head, like he’d been holding his breath for a long time. Maybe he had been, and he didn’t realize it.

“Thanks for the shirt, Kageyama,” he said, his voice small. “A-And thanks for being tall, so I only needed the shirt!” Hinata heard Kageyama puff out a little breath, which he interpreted as an acknowledgment. He flashed a grin and plopped down on Kageyama’s bed, crossing his legs. “I like your room,” Hinata chimed. “It’s simple, but nice! Plus, it smells like you!”

Kageyama evaded the comment and looked out the window, pursing his lips. He muttered, “Doesn’t look like the rain is gonna end anytime soon. We should call your parents and tell them you’re here.”

An idea popped up in Hinata’s mind, making him light up. “Oh! What if the rain lasts all night? We’ll get to have a sleepover!” He bounced excitedly on the bed, beaming at Kageyama.

It seemed clear what Kageyama would say about the idea, so Hinata was actually jarred a bit when he agreed. “Fine. We don’t know how long this’ll last, anyway, so we might as well.”

Hinata gasped. “Really?” He giggled and leaned on Kageyama. “Yay, I get to sleep over with Kageyama! We could play Truth or Dare, or have a pillow fight, or watch a movie! This’ll be so much fun!”

With every activity that Hinata listed, more regret crept into Kageyama’s expression. It was almost comical to see Kageyama realizing just what he’d signed up for. Before Kageyama could change his mind about anything, however, Hinata lunged for his bag and grabbed his phone. After shooting a quick call to his mother to ask for permission, he flopped back down onto Kageyama’s bed with pride glowing in his eyes. “There! She said it’s okay, so I get to have a slumber party with you!”

Kageyama narrowed his eyes, shrugging Hinata off as he tried to hold his arm. “Who said this was a party?”

Hinata giggled. “I did! By my decree, it’s a party!” When Kageyama crossed his arms disapprovingly, Hinata pouted and headbutted him. “Don’t be like that! I’ll find a way to get you to have fun, I promise!”

Kageyama’s response was nothing more than a discontented hum, and it just motivated Hinata more. “C’mon,” Hinata sang, tugging Kageyama closer. “We’ll play a game! Truth or dare?”

“Huh?” Kageyama’s expression was caught between bewilderment and condescension.

“Truth or dare! We’re playin’ a game; pick one!” Hinata puffed out a giggle and nudged Kageyama. “You can do it!”

Kageyama wrinkled his nose. “That’s so adolescent.”

“We are adolescent,” Hinata pointed out innocently.

“We don’t need to flaunt it.” Kageyama sighed, rolling his eyes. “Whatever. Dare.”

“Lick the ceiling,” Hinata commanded without hesitation.

“Wh-What?!” Kageyama’s jaw dropped incredulously.

“You heard me.”

“How am I supposed to do that?!”

“Figure it out,” Hinata said simply, shrugging. “Oooor, you could strip to get out of it.” The grin on his face turned sinister as Kageyama’s cheeks flushed. For a moment, the setter seemed to be considering the option, but it looked like he couldn’t bring himself to turn down the challenge. He got up and stood on his bed, reaching up to gauge the height of the ceiling from that point. He hummed thoughtfully and stepped down, Hinata watching with amusement. He couldn’t hold back a proud giggle as Kageyama searched around his room for something tall enough for the task, frustration growing on the setter’s face with each second. “You can do it,” Hinata sang. “Don’t give up! Even if it would be fun to see ya strip.”

He actually hadn’t thought much about what had left his mouth until he saw Kageyama freeze, his face turning scarlet. Oops. Hinata conjured a smug chortle to punctuate his statement, hoping that Kageyama would just interpret it as a joking brag.

After a tense beat, Kageyama seemed to let go of the comment. Hinata puffed out a sigh of relief as Kageyama went back to poking around his room. Eventually, he returned to the bed empty-handed. “Oooh,” Hinata purred. “You giving up?”

Kageyama snorted and stepped up onto the bed, shaking his head as he glanced between Hinata and the ceiling. Hinata’s proud expression fell when the setter lifted his foot and put it onto Hinata’s shoulder, earning a squeak from him. “Woah, what’re you doin’?!”

“Using you as a step ladder,” Kageyama answered matter-of-factly. “Hold still.”

“Wh-- I’m not gonna let you step on me!” Hinata squirmed as Kageyama hoisted himself onto his shoulders for a second, stretching up just enough to reach the ceiling before plopping back down. Hinata felt used.

“There,” Kageyama puffed, bouncing into place on the mattress. “It tasted horrible, by the way.”

Hinata simply scowled at Kageyama, anger and astonishment painting his features. “Y-You…!”

One of Kageyama’s eyebrows quirked up. “What? I found a way to do it. I wasn’t about to take off my clothes for you.” He shrugged, picking idly at his fingernails. “Oh, we’re playing a game, right? Truth or dare?” A glint of challenge crossed Kageyama’s proud expression.

Hinata narrowed his eyes. “Dare.”

“Eat a spoonful of mayo,” Kageyama commanded.

“What…?!”

Kageyama sighed. “Do I need to explain how to do it? Go get a jar of mayo from the kitchen and eat a spoonful of it in front of me. You gotta swallow it, too. If you spit it out, you have to strip.”

Hinata’s jaw fell slack. “Dude, what the hell?”

A grin crept across Kageyama’s face that assured Hinata that he was being completely serious. What kind of devilish mind did Kageyama have, thinking up things like that? Nevertheless, Hinata wasn’t about to let Kageyama win. “Fine!” He got to his feet and stormed down to Kageyama’s kitchen, returning to his room soon after with a jar of mayonnaise and the smallest spoon that he could find. “I hate you for this,” he hissed at Kageyama as he scooped a spoonful out.

“I’m sure you do,” was Kageyama’s indifferent reply. Something about the aloof tone just motivated Hinata more. Looking Kageyama in the eye, he jabbed his spoon into his mouth before he could think about what a bad idea it was. Within a nanosecond, Hinata’s mind flipped from this isn’t so bad, to oh, no this is the worst thing in the universe.

A strangled noise came from Hinata as he clambered for Kageyama’s trash bin and spat the white mess out. “Eugh, what the fuck?! That was the grosses shit in the world! What’s wrong with you?!” Hinata trailed off when he saw the baleful look on Kageyama’s face. “Ohh no. No, no, no. That’s not fair! You can’t make me strip! I’m already pantsless!”

Kageyama shrugged, and the smug expression he had on made Hinata wish that he’d spat the mayonnaise into the setter’s face. “Tough shit,” Kageyama said. “You’re pantsless by choice.”

“B-But all I’m wearing is the shirt and my boxers…” Hinata whined desperately.

“Tough. Shit.”

Shrinking back a bit, Hinata reluctantly pulled off his borrowed shirt. As soon as the air hit his torso, he realized that he’d taken how warm the shirt was for granted. “Jeez, why d’you keep it so cold in here…?”

Kageyama just shrugged. “Doesn’t seem cold to me.”

Hinata narrowed his eyes. “That’s because you’ve got clothes on,” he grumbled. As he sat back on the bed, he hugged his arms to his chest. “Truth or dare,” he said flatly.

“Dare, of course.” Kageyama sat up proudly, his gaze pointed into the distance. He was such a drama queen…

Humming thoughtfully, Hinata tapped a finger on his chin. “Hm… Tell me I’m pretty?”

Kageyama furrowed his brow. “Huh? I’m not telling a half-naked dude that he’s pretty.”

“Whose fault is it that I’m half-naked?” Hinata raised an eyebrow.

Kageyama curled his lip and turned away. “That doesn’t matter. I’m not doing it.”

“Then you’ll have to striiip,” Hinata warbled.

Kageyama looked back to Hinata, his eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. “Fine. You’re… very pretty.”

A giggle promptly erupted from Hinata. “Not even a ‘no homo’? Wow, Kageyama, I didn’t know you felt that way!” Kageyama opened his mouth to object, but Hinata put a finger to his lips before he could say anything. “It’s okay, Kageyama. We can’t decide who we are.”

Kageyama swatted Hinata’s hand away. “You told me to call you pretty!”

Hinata just smiled and patted Kageyama’s shoulder. “It’s alright. I still love you.”

“You what.”

“I love you!” Hinata beamed.

Kageyama snorted, shaking his head. “Whatever. Truth or dare?”

“Oh? Dare me!”

“Admit that I won the race earlier.”

“Oh, hell no! I won that!”

“If you think you did,” Kageyama crooned, leaning close to Hinata. “Then strip.”

“I-I…” Hinata was torn between his pride and his modesty, and the fact that Kageyama was close enough for his breath to tickle Hinata’s face didn’t help one bit. “But… If I did, then I’d be naked…”

The expression that flashed across Kageyama’s face made a hot flush rush up Hinata’s neck. Hinata found himself wondering if Kageyama was interested in something other than just being proven right. Looking down, Hinata mumbled, “You… you won the race. Only by a bit, though.”

Hinata let out a breath as Kageyama pulled away, his expression shifting to a more recognizable one of pride. “Gimme a truth this time,” he said, leaning back and tucking his hands behind his head. “Your dares are dumb.”

Hinata straightened up and narrowed his eyes, ignoring the speed that his heart rate had picked up to in the past moment. “Fine. Why’d you want me to strip naked so bad?”

Kageyama’s features slackened for a moment before changing into a scowl. “I just wanted to win. It had nothing to do with any amount of nudity.”

“Then why were you invading my personal space before?”

“...Intimidation.”

“Why would you have to intimidate me if you were so sure of the fact you were right?”

“Because, even though I was sure I was right, you weren’t.”

A little smirk tugged at the edges of Hinata’s lips. “Because I won.”

Kageyama wrinkled his nose. “You already admitted I won!”

“Never said I had to admit it permanently.”

“It doesn’t even matter,” Kageyama groaned, rolling his eyes. “Since I pinned you when you turned it into a fight.”

“You think so?” Hinata raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think; I know.” Kageyama looked down his nose at Hinata.

Taking Kageyama’s confidence as an invitation to test him, Hinata lunged at the setter, bowling him over and pinning him down. “Hah! See, I can w--!”

In an instant, Kageyama had flipped Hinata onto his back, making him squeak, and pinned him with impressive strength. “You were saying?” he cooed.

Hinata stared up at Kageyama with wide eyes. He didn’t even bother trying to struggle, he was so taken aback by Kageyama’s swiftness. He could feel his heart pounding hastily in his chest, kickstarted by his surprise.

“Will you admit I won now…?” Kageyama muttered. A shiver ran down Hinata’s spine at the tone in Kageyama’s voice, the setter’s eyes flicking across him and making him overly aware of how naked he was. There was something about the situation that made Hinata forget about how far off of the floor the bed really was; he felt like he was being suspended stories up into thin air. It was dizzying and thrilling, and, more than anything, Hinata was frightened that he was going to fall. If he did, though, he hoped that Kageyama would be on the ground, ready to catch him.

“What is it?”

Hinata blinked, his sight blurring a bit as he looked at Kageyama above him. “H-Huh?”

“You… looked like you were about to say something,” Kageyama explained, his cheeks pink. He looked about as stunned by the moment as Hinata felt.

“I…” When Hinata’s attention was brought to it, he realized that he could feel something he wanted to say lingering on his lips, like he’d forgotten his line. “I was, but I can’t remember what it was.”

“Oh.” Kageyama seemed to retreat into himself a bit, the curiosity in his expression fading.

“I,uh…” Hinata groped for something to say that would cool down the fresh discomfort that crackled in the air. “I’m still not gonna admit you won. You cheated by being bigger than me.”

“Huh?” Kageyama furrowed his brow. “How’s that cheating?!”

Hinata could feel the situation returning to how things naturally were between them, making him relax. He puffed out his cheeks teasingly at Kageyama. “It just is! You only pinned me ‘cause you’re fat!”

“Fat?!”

The absolute befuddlement in Kageyama’s voice dragged a giggle out of Hinata. “Yep! You’re a fatty!”

Kageyama’s frown intensified, his cheeks turning from pink to red. “I am not fat, you dumbass! Quit laughing at me!”

That just made Hinata chuckle even more, and he just kept going as Kageyama’s expression became more embarrassed and confused. The setter’s reactions were always so perfect. “You’re either fat or you’re a loser!” he chittered.

“Wh-- That doesn’t make sense!” Kageyama objected.

“Too bad! If you won’t choose one, I’ll call you a fat loser!”

“But I’m neither!”

Kageyama’s tone gave rise to another fit of laughter from Hinata. The setter let go of Hinata to cover his red face, and Hinata slapped a hand over his mouth in an attempt to restrain his rebellious snickering. He still felt sky-high, and he just kept going up. His head was full of clouds, and the air seemed so thin that he couldn’t do anything but laugh. He’d never felt anything similar to his, and he adored it.

Once his laughter had tapered off, Hinata tucked his hands behind his head, the massive grin the pulled at his cheeks impossible to keep down. “You’re funny, Kageyama,” Hinata puffed.

Kageyama leaned back and crossed his arms, still sitting on Hinata. “I wasn’t trying to be funny,” he grumbled.

“That’s what made it so funny!” Hinata’s words earned a groan from Kageyama.

“You’re annoying,” Kageyama growled.

“You’re funny,” countered Hinata.

Kageyama clicked his tongue and pushed himself off of Hinata, but Hinata reflexively grabbed him and held him in place. Somehow, he could tell that his silly, soaring feeling was directly connected to Kageyama, and he was worried that he would lose it if the setter broke their contact.

“What’re you doing?” Kageyama asked, his nose crinkling in a way that was probably way cuter than he intended. Wait, did Hinata just call Kageyama cute?

Realizing that he was supposed to answer Kageyama’s question, Hinata stammered and tried to find a way to word his problem. “I… felt like I was gonna fall.”

Kageyama furrowed his brow. “You’re nowhere near the edge of the bed.”

“Y-Yeah, I know…” Hinata propped himself up on his elbows, letting out a breath. He didn’t want to think about why his heart was racing so much. “I just kinda… acted on instinct.”

“You’ll be fine,” Kageyama huffed as he got off of Hinata.

Hinata found himself cringing, prepared to completely lose the flying sensation that Kageyama had given him. He was going to fall, and he could feel the solid earth looming closer and closer with each second, but no landing ever came. As soon as the two of them were back to sitting normally, Kageyama’s warmth returned. It was little more contact than their legs touching, but it managed to make the ground disappear from under Hinata. He had the sort of rush that happened when he tipped his chair too far back, but it wasn’t stopping. He felt like he was going to be falling forever.

“Hey. What’re you spacing about?”

Hinata jumped and glanced over to Kageyama, a blush prickling at his cheeks. “Huh? O-Oh, I’m just… Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Kageyama huffed. “Thinkin’ about nothing, huh? Why am I not surprised?”

Hinata pushed Kageyama. “Hey! That’s mean!”

The setter just puffed out a little chuckle, and Hinata was given a moment to think about what he was feeling. He’d only felt like this a couple times before, and it seemed pretty clear that it was what came with having a crush. He didn’t quite know how to deal with feeling this way about his best friend, though…

After a little bit, Hinata spoke up in an attempt to start a conversation. Unfortunately, Kageyama must have had the same idea, because they both ended up cutting each other off. Great, now things had gotten even more uncomfortable.

“So…” Kageyama mumbled eventually, trepidation in his voice. “Are you gonna ever admit I won?”

The first thought that came to Hinata at that comment was something along the lines of, well, you definitely won my heart, and Hinata realized that he was so fucked. Mentally slapping himself, he shook his head. “Nah. You’re a sore winner, anyway.”

“Is that even a thing?” Kageyama raised an eyebrow.

Hinata just shrugged. “It is as long as you exist.”

Clicking his tongue, Kageyama elbowed Hinata playfully. “You’re an idiot,” he grumbled.

“I’m your idiot,” was Hinata’s response. If he was going to try to cover up his newly discovered feelings, he was doing a terrible job at the moment.

Somehow, Kageyama didn’t seem to pick up on Hinata’s meaning. That, or he just didn’t want to say anything about it. “I don’t think I’d benefit much from owning you.”

“If I’m not yours, then you’ll be mine!” Hinata grabbed Kageyama’s arm, snickering.

“What? That doesn’t make sense!” Kageyama tried fruitlessly to pull his arm away.

Hinata leaned on Kageyama as he refused to budge from the limb that he’d claimed. “Too bad! You’re mine now!”

Kageyama continued to try to push Hinata off, but Hinata just crawled into his lap and clung to him adamantly. After a little bit of squirming from both parties, Kageyama gave up and sighed. Hinata grinned and nuzzled his face into Kageyama’s shoulder triumphantly. “You’re comfy,” he mumbled. “And you smell nice.”

“Are you kidding me? I smell like I’ve been rained on.”

Hinata shrugged and nestled himself into Kageyama, humming happily, “M’sleepy…”

“If you fall asleep on me, I’ll push you off the bed,” Kageyama threatened.

“I can handle that,” Hinata sighed with no hesitation. “M’tough.”

Kageyama clicked his tongue and shifted a bit, likely trying to find a way to get comfortable with Hinata on him. “You’re insufferable.”

“Love you,” Hinata cooed.

“Why don’t you just hurry up and fall asleep?”

**  
“M’kay…”**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata starts to fight his greatest enemy: the stupid, annoying feeling that comes with infatuation. Also, talk of a party jumps around and a couple people can tell already what's going on between Hinata and Kageyama.

“So, are you in or what? It’ll be a shitton of fun.”

Hinata made a noncommittal noise, rocking back on his heels. Tanaka had been trying to convince him to go to a party, and Hinata wasn’t super keen on the idea. Sure, it would be fun, but Tanaka had mentioned drinking, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to deal with that. He’d been nagged about the danger of peer pressure more than enough since he was young, and it had managed to stick a teeny bit.

“Listen, it’ll be a helluva time,” Tanaka put in. “Isn’t that right, Noya?” As he spoke, he grabbed Noya’s arm and shot him a look. Noya rolled with it easily.

“‘Course it will! D’you think Tanaka and I would ever fib about something like this?”

Hinata chewed thoughtfully on his lip. “I’m just not sure my mom’ll let me, y’know?”

Noya clapped Hinata on the shoulder, making him squeak. “She’ll be cool about it! Just don’t mention anything about the drinkin’.” The libero must’ve seen the reluctance in Hinata’s expression as he sighed and stepped back, throwing his hands outward. “It’s gonna be super chill; I promise. I even convinced Asahi to come with.”

“Well,” Hinata mumbled, shuffling his feet. “I guess it can’t be too bad.”

“Atta boy!” Noya beamed and slugged Hinata in the shoulder. “You can even bring your setter with, if you wanna.” He winked, and Hinata stiffened. Fuck, what did Noya know? Surely he couldn’t have been that obvious…

Before Hinata could fall further into his worry, a scrap of white butted into his vision. He took the little chunk of paper that Tanaka was offering him, reading over the scribbles on it. “It’ll be at this address,” Tanaka explained. “Eight o’clock on Saturday. You’ll be able to get there, yeah?”

Hinata raised his eyebrows. “Yeah! It’s not too far from my house actually! I could probably walk!”

“Coolio. See ya Saturday, then.” Tanaka glanced at something a little past Hinata and nudged Noya’s shoulder. “Hey, d’you think I’d be able to get Suga to come?”

One of Noya’s eyebrows quirked up. “Why? Think we need supervision or somethin’?”

Snorting, Tanaka elbowed Noya. “Not like that! C’mon, you’re gonna help me talk him into it.” He grabbed Noya and tugged him away, both of them waving at Hinata as they scurried off, leaving Hinata with an excited grin and a scrap of paper. He recalled what Noya had said about bringing Kageyama with. It seemed silly to worry about, but Hinata couldn’t shake the thought that Noya had somehow seen Hinata’s feelings. Maybe he’d been super obvious about it and everyone knew already…

Glancing around with a newfound fear that the words “I’m in love with my best friend,” were embossed on his forehead, Hinata noticed that Noya and Tanaka hadn’t embarked on their journey to talk with Suga just yet. They’d stuck behind, chatting with--oh no-- Kageyama. The pair ended up leaving the setter after only a few seconds, and Kageyama’s gaze immediately landed on Hinata once they’d gone. Hinata felt like his feet had sunk a few inches into the earth, making him shorter and totally unable to move as Kageyama approached him.

“Oi, what’re you staring at?” Kageyama questioned, jabbing Hinata’s forehead. Oh, god, were there really words on there?

“I-I, uh…” Hinata looked down at his feet, realizing that he’d probably accidentally trapped himself in this situation by gawking at Kageyama. He couldn’t help it; his mind just went to mush whenever he saw the setter. “Nothin’. What were Noya and Tanaka talking about with you…?”

Kageyama shrugged and glanced over his shoulder towards where the pair had run off. “Not much. Told me to look for you. Noya kept asking stuff about the other night. Did you say something to him?”

Hinata furrowed his brow. “Why would I?”

Sighing, Kageyama shook his head. “No clue.” He looked back to Hinata, making him stiffen as he realized that he’d been staring again. It wasn’t his fault; Kageyama’s profile looked really nice… “Are you listening to me?”

“Huh?” Hinata yelped and stiffened, a blush prickling at his cheeks. How did he manage to get so distracted so easily? “I, uh…” He tried his damndest to digest the butterflies that had spawned in his gut. Those couldn’t be good for his health.

“I said why did they tell me to look for you?” Kageyama raised an eyebrow, his frustrated expression making more shame ball up in Hinata’s throat.

“O-Oh! Yeah, that…” Hinata bit at one of his fingernails and rocked back on his feet. Why had they? He saw the sliver of white in his hand and remembered. “Right! I got this!” Hinata perked up and waved the paper in Kageyama’s face. “I’m bringing you, too!”

Kageyama curled his lip, his eyes flicking back and forth as he tried to read the flapping slip of paper before giving up and grabbing Hinata’s arm in an attempt to hold it still. “Idiot, I can’t tell what it says,” he snapped, making Hinata finally stop moving the note so that he could read it. “Why are you bringing me here?”

“It’s a party!” Hinata announced, beaming. “I’m gonna take you!”

“Wh--”

“Be over at my place Saturday at eight!”

“I’m not--”

“You don’t get a choice! You’re coming!”

Kageyama’s mouth fell open. “What the hell--”

“Everyone’s coming!” Hinata sang, bouncing up on his tiptoes. “It’ll be so much fun!”

When Kageyama didn’t respond, Hinata stuck out his lip in the sweetest pout that he could conjure. “Awh, pleeeaaase? It won’t be as much fun without you…” Kageyama crossed his arms, and Hinata set his hands on them as he tried to look as pitiful as possible. Kageyama wrinkled his nose and stepped back, making Hinata’s arms drop to his sides.

“I’m not saying anything,” Kageyama muttered spitefully. “I’ll just get interrupted again.”

Hinata’s pout turned into a real frown. “Awh, don’t be like that! I didn’t mean to interrupt you!” He crossed the gap between himself and Kageyama to put his hands back on the setter’s arms. Much to his relief, Kageyama didn’t pull away this time. “I’m sorry,” Hinata finally said after a beat, sinking back onto his heels.

A begrudging sigh fell from Kageyama’s lips. Wow, speaking of his lips, they looked pleasantly kissable…

“Did you hear me? Quit staring.” Kageyama’s voice made Hinata jump. He looked helplessly up at Kageyama, his cheeks burning. Damn, he really was too infatuated with the setter to hold a regular conversation with him. No matter how hard he tried, the insects that fluttered in his gut just couldn’t be felled, and they constantly demanded Hinata’s attention. He wished that they could learn how to settle down when the time called for it; they were starting to really frustrate Hinata with how unruly they were.

It looked like Kageyama was getting frustrated as well, but Hinata doubted that he knew about the butterflies that were causing the real problem. He was probably just annoyed with Hinata. “I said I’d go to your stupid party.”

“Really?!” Hinata grinned and threw his arms around Kageyama. “Yayyy! We’ll have a lotta fun; I just know it!”

Kageyama quite nearly fell down as Hinata’s weight and momentum latched onto him. “D-Don’t make me change my mind,” he yelped. “You’re suffocating me!”

Hinata plopped down and smiled up at Kageyama, his cheeks pink. “Sorry!”

~~//~~

“You’re so goddamn lucky I went along with this idea.”

“Oh, c’mon Kageyama, you already said that, like, a billion times! This’ll be fun, I promise!” Hinata flashed a grin at Kageyama as they walked through the hazy halos of light that the streetlamps cast in the dusk. Hinata was bouncing along the sidewalk with Kageyama, occasionally having to pause because he lost track of his pace and ended up jogging a ways ahead of the setter. He’d been waiting eagerly for the party all day, and he’d practically jumped on Kageyama when he’d finally arrived at his house. Kageyama’s constant griping throughout the journey had failed to put a damper on Hinata’s spirits, so he still had a spring in his step as they neared their destination.

“Fun, my ass,” Kageyama hissed, his hands crammed in his jacket pockets. For a moment, Hinata thought about Kageyama’s ass, but he did his best to shake it off. In the midst of his excitement for tonight, he’d been pretty worried about his infatuation getting the better of him. He hoped dearly that he’d be able to control his silly thoughts for the whole night.

Smiling, Hinata turned curiously towards Kageyama. “Are you gonna drink at all? Tanaka said the beer they had was gonna be pretty shitty, but still.” For a while, Hinata had been turning over the idea of Kageyama getting drunk in his head, and he couldn’t imagine any way that it could possibly go bad.

“If I’ve gotta hang out with you for the whole night, I plan to.” Kageyama snorted, his comment gleaning a whine from Hinata.

“Hey, that was uncalled for!” Hinata objected, jabbing Kageyama in the side. The setter simply shrugged it off and glanced across the rows of houses around them. “We’re getting pretty close,” Hinata said, hoping that Kageyama didn’t distrust his navigation skills. Hinata’s knowledge of this specific area was pretty vague, as it had been a long time since he’d been through it, but he hadn’t mentioned that to Kageyama when he’d volunteered to lead the way.

“You sure that the street is this way?” Kageyama asked. There was an edge to his voice that told Hinata that he was starting to wonder if trusting Hinata with directions had been the best idea.

“It’s gotta be! C’mon!” Hinata grabbed Kageyama’s arm and tugged him to the end of the block. He was certain that this was their destination street. “See? It’s right… here?” The finger that he’d pointed to the street sign went limp.

When Hinata turned to look at Kageyama, he felt like he’d been thrown into a vat of lava. Every inch of his skin was burning as a shameful flush scraped across him. The hot sensation only deepened when Hinata saw Kageyama’s features curl into a harsh scowl.

“Right here, right…?” Kageyama hissed through his teeth, seeming to grow six feet above Hinata.

“U-Uhh, I…” Hinata shrunk back. “I-I swear, I remember this area. Did the street name change? Maybe we just--”

The “Oh, my fucking god,” that came from Kageyama made Hinata’s heart drop right through the earth. Fuck, why hadn’t he looked up the address properly during his excitement earlier?

“Oh, my fucking god!” Kageyama repeated, slapping himself on the forehead. “What the fuck?! Why did I trust you with this?!”

Hinata’s face fell slack. If he hadn’t felt bad about himself already, he certainly did now. “Wh-- Hey! Don’t act like it was bad to trust my judgement! I’m not stupid!”

“It looks like you are, because you got us lost!” Kageyama swung his arm out to gesture at the street sign.

“B-But, I--”

“No! Don’t give me any bullshit! We’re lost!”

“I’m sorry!” Hinata buried his face in his hands, shame eating away at him.

Kageyama clicked his tongue, and the sheer exasperation behind the sound made Hinata feel like he’d been kicked in the gut. “It’s fine,” Kageyama hissed, and Hinata knew that it wasn’t fine in any way. “I’ll just call Tanaka for directions.”

Hinata’s pride made him stiffen. “N-No, wait! I promise, I can fix it; my memory’s just rusty!” Hinata paused when he heard a voice coming from nearby, but before he could mention anything about it, Kageyama went off.

“Oh, fuck off! I’m not gonna trust your navigational skills if they’re rusty enough to get us lost!” Kageyama snarled.

“Guys--”

Hinata was too frustrated to listen to the new voice. “We’re not lost! We just missed a turn or something!” He clenched his fists and tried as hard as he could to seem threatening, which was basically the equivalent of a bunny trying to intimidate a mountain lion.

“Guuuys--”

****  
  


“Do you have any idea where we are?!” Kageyama burst, his hands thrown out in fury. “No, you don’t! Because we’re fucking lost!”

“Hinata! Kageyama! Could you two pay attention to something other than each other for, like five seconds?!”

Hinata squealed and fell on his butt, worried that the owner of the voice was about to hit him for ignoring it. It looked like they were more upset with Kageyama, though, because a hand landed on his shoulder and whirled him around. Kageyama’s face dropped at light speed when he saw that the owner of the voice was Sugawara. Hinata’s fear loosened exceptionally when he saw Kageyama shrink back and look at his feet like a child that had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Now,” Suga started, a twinkle of amusement in his eye. “You’re gonna hate me for this, but you should probably apologize to Hinata. You’re on your way to the party, yes? Tanaka said you’d be going.” At his words, Hinata and Kageyama simultaneously nodded. “It’s practically right in front of you.”

“Uh, what?” Kageyama furrowed his brow, his lip curling in doubt.

Suga chuckled. “Hinata was going the right way; you just stopped a couple blocks too early. If you’d have kept going, you would’ve gotten there.”

Hinata couldn’t hold back a giggle when he saw Kageyema’s flabbergasted expression. The setter looked Hinata’s way and saw the “I told you so,” look in his eyes that made his mouth fall open. Hinata chortled louder, tickled by the whole situation. It was all such a silly mistake; Kageyama was probably just too eager to prove Hinata wrong to consider any other options. Still, Hinata was glad to have brought Kageyama along. He was actually pretty sure that the party wouldn’t be very fun without him, so, despite how silly his best friend seemed to be at times, he was glad to have him. Hinata wouldn’t give Kageyama up for the world.

After a moment of Hinata giggling to himself, still on the ground, Kageyama seemed to have recovered from his embarrassment enough to get back to his regular self. “Oi, dumbass, get up,” he snapped. “You’re the one that wanted to go to this stupid party.” He grabbed Hinata’s arm and pulled him to his feet.

**  
“Y-Yeah, okay, let’s go,” Hinata chimed as he got to his feet, his eyes sparkling.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff up the butt, plus some drunk Kags!! And by some I mean a lot. A lot of drunk Kags. As for what's up with Tanaka and Suga, don't ask me, because they did it without my permission. It just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about taking so long to post! This is a long chapter, though, so hopefully that makes up for it!! Thanks a billion for reading! <3

When they arrived, the party had gained a pretty good momentum. People mingled about, cheap plastic cups in hand, and music thumped through the area. Thanks to the large house, there was actually plenty of room to fit everyone comfortably.

Almost as soon as they walked through the door, Tanaka scurried up to greet them. Hinata had a feeling that he’d been watching the door for everyone that he’d invited. As he neared, Hinata caught a whiff of the sharp smell of alcohol, coming both from Tanaka’s mouth and the cup that he was holding. He didn’t seem too far, gone, however; he was walking and speaking fine, so he must not have had too much yet.

“Hinata! Hell yeah! I was gettin’ worried you wouldn’t show!” Tanaka clapped a hand on Hinata’s shoulder, beaming. “And you managed to drag Kags all the way out here? I’m impressed. And lookit who you picked up.” His eyes fell on Suga and his expression changed a fraction, his eyelids lowering.

Suga seemed a bit perplexed by Tanaka’s little change in tone, but he didn’t say anything about it. “I, uh, I ran into these two on my way here,” he explained. “Hard not to hear ‘em when they’re arguing.” He puffed out a chuckle as Kageyama straightened up, clearly personally offended by Suga’s comment. Hinata couldn’t help but think it was kind of cute how the setter inflated like a pufferfish, angered more by the fact that Tanaka and Suga were snickering at him.

“He got us lost!” Kageyama blurted, swinging an arm out and nearly hitting Hinata in the face.

Now it was Hinata’s expression that the upperclassmen were laughing at. Hinata pouted and pushed Kageyama’s arm down as Suga said: “It was more like Kageyama was trying to pick a fight.”

Kageyama inflated more, his nostrils flaring. “I wasn’t…! I didn’t…! Ugh!” He gave up and stomped away, disappearing past the thick of the party. Hinata sighed helplessly and started after him, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed for Kageyama, like it was his fault that the setter was acting up tonight.

When Hinata found Kageyama, he was propped on a wall, clutching a plastic cup. As Hinata neared, he saw that Kageyama’s lips were moving a bit; the setter was likely complaining under his breath. Cute. Wait, fuck, Hinata needed to stop assigning the word “cute” to things that weren’t really cute. It was like his brain forced things to be endearing as soon as Kageyama was involved. Hinata was pretty sure that if the setter hocked a loogie at him, he’d find it adorable.

Hinata stiffened when he realized that Kageyama had been looking his way for a few moments now. Biting back a wave of nervousness, he scuttled up to stand next to Kageyama along the wall. “H-Hi, Kageyama!” he chirped. “Funny seeing you here, huh?” He chuckled a bit, but no laughter came from Kageyama. Maybe he was too grumpy to have a sense of humor at the moment.

“You took me here, dumbass.” Kageyama’s response was flat and jagged.

“That was the joke…” Hinata mumbled, biting the inside of his cheek. “I see you, uh, already got something to drink.”

“Yep,” Kageyama replied, taking a sip of what Hinata assumed was some cheap beer. “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll forget all about this stupid party tomorrow.” At his comment, Hinata giggled. “What?” snapped Kageyama.

Hinata just chortled more. “Oh, my gosh, Kageyama, you’re such a drama queen!” Still bubbling with laughter, he smoothed down his hair and grumbled in his best impression of Kageyama, after starting and stopping a few times because of his giggling: “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll forget all about this stupid party.”

“Oh, knock it off!” Kageyama huffed and swatted Hinata on the back of the head, a little tinge of pink on his cheeks. “I don’t think there’s enough beer in the world to make me forget about anything your stupid ass does.”

Hinata cocked his head. “What’s that even supposed to mean?” When the only answer he got from Kageyama was a glare, he shrugged and flashed a grin. “I think I’m gonna take it as a compliment! I’m unforgettable!”

Kageyama curled his lip. “You go ahead and believe that, dumbass.”

Still smiling, Hinata stuck his nose in the air. “I think I will!” he chimed.

Kageyama sighed and took a swig of his beer, looking away. Hinata opened his mouth to speak, but nothing could come out. He’d never found it so hard to talk to Kageyama before, but here he was, his throat tight and his mouth dry, unable to bring up anything casual to say in the lull that the conversation had fallen into. He’d seen Kageyama get pretty damn scary before, but somehow the setter managed to be monumentally more intimidating when he wasn’t even doing anything. When Kageyama finally looked over to Hinata, he totally froze up, his heart jumping into his throat. The heavy bass of a song shook the floor under Hinata’s feet, but he was pretty sure that his pounding heartbeat was louder.

Kageyama’s lips started to move. “Oy, did you hear me?”

“H-Huh?” Hinata blinked vacantly at the setter.

“I said, make yourself useful and go get me some more beer.”

Hinata nodded, wetting his lips. “R-Right, okay. I’ll do that.”

~~//~~

A couple hours later, Kageyama had gone through an immeasurable amount of shitty beer. Hinata had chatted with Kageyama as he went through the beverages, his speech changing slowly. The setter’s words had begun to slur together, dripping lazily from his mouth like his lips had just stopped caring. It was kind of a cute sight, really, but Hinata couldn’t tell if it was really cute, or if it was just his head muddling logic again so that it could make Kageyama seem cute. Soon enough, Hinata stopped getting Kageyama his desired drinks, deciding that the setter had had plenty for one night. Kageyama complained and whined, but he couldn’t assert himself very much like this, so he didn’t actually do anything about it.

“You’re a cruel man for denying me my beer access,” Kageyama slurred, leaning on Hinata. “D’you have any idea who I am?”

Hinata giggled and patted Kageyama’s head. “You’re Kageyama,” he pointed out simply.

“I’m the _king_ of the court!” Kageyama burst. “You can’t deny a king his beer rights!” He seemed to be trying really hard to seem grand, but it was difficult to take him seriously when his face was red and he was barely enunciating.

“I thought you hated that name,” Hinata said.

“I do. It’s horrible.”

“Then why’re you using it?”

Kageyama didn’t answer; he just huffed and leaned his head on Hinata’s shoulder. Hinata chuckled and straightened Kageyama up. “Do you wanna sit down?” he offered.

A noncommittal noise came from Kageyama as he tried to steady himself. He looked so cute like this… fuck, wait. Before Hinata could mentally scold himself, an odd set of words came from Kageyama: “You should be the queen…”

“E-Excuse me?” Hinata’s eyes widened as he leaned curiously towards Kageyama. Had he even heard the setter correctly?

“Queen of the court,” Kageyama sighed, leaning on Hinata. “Or, I guess you’d be the other king, ‘cause you’re a guy…” He paused, his lips parted a little bit as if there was something that he couldn’t quite say lingering there. “Oh, my god,” he breathed. “You’re a guy.”

Hinata wanted to be amused by Kageyama’s arbitrary observation of the obvious, but there was an odd twinge of despair in Kageyama’s tone that made his smile fade a bit. “I, uh, I am. That’s not… really new.”

“And you’re my best friend…” Kageyama’s eyes widened slowly, like something massive was dawning on him. “My god… that’s really weird.”

Hinata’s jaw dropped. “Hey! Kageyama, that’s not nice!”

“No, it’s… it’s me that’s weird.” Kageyama looked at Hinata with a crestfallen expression. “You’re fine. You’re… great. You’re really, really great.”

Hinata’s expression softened. Kageyama’s words didn’t seem incredibly genuine or important, since they were said through a haze of alcohol, but it was hard not to take his little compliment right to heart. “Wow, that’s… really sweet, Kageyama. Thank you.”

“I miss what we did at my house before,” mumbled Kageyama, propping his chin up on Hinata’s shoulder. Hinata tried to lift him off a bit, not fond of Kageyama’s alcohol-drenched breath being so close, but the setter just kept falling back onto him, as if pulled magnetically. “It was fun,” he sighed, continuing on his initial statement once he’d gotten comfortable. Hinata wasn’t really sure how he felt about him being so close. “You fell asleep on me. It was really nice…”

Hinata’s heartbeat fluttered as he remembered how that night had felt for him. It had been such a mess of feelings, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to face it at the moment. Despite his reluctance to think about it, something about this night felt so temporary and evanescent. He figured that Kageyama would never remember anything about tonight, so there wasn’t any harm in talking about personal stuff. “It was pretty nice,” Hinata finally agreed, a soft smile crossing his face. “You were comfy.”

Kageyama perked up all of a sudden, glancing around the room with narrowed eyes. Hinata cocked his head curiously and tried to follow Kageyama’s gaze, but he couldn’t see anything other than clusters of teenagers mulling about. After a moment, Kageyama relaxed a bit and propped his chin back onto Hinata. “Sorry,” he murmured. “Thought I heard something weird.”

Hinata furrowed his brow and scanned the room. He didn’t think he’d heard anything, but he’d been ignoring most of the noise of the party so much that whatever Kageyama had heard probably would’ve fallen into the buzz in the background of his consciousness. Hinata tried to find anything odd in the room, but he was doing a terrible job. Kageyama’s breath against his neck was painfully distracting, and he found himself being tugged towards Kageyama by an unseen force. Eventually, he gave up on trying to focus on anything else, because he was drawn too strongly to Kageyama. It seemed only natural, like magnets attracting each other.

“Hey.” Kageyama’s voice but into Hinata’s thoughts. “You remember how we got to my house and we were all wet?” Hinata wasn’t sure where Kageyama was going with this, but he nodded. “I could totally see your nipples through your shirt.”

With that one slurred, sudden sentence, the mood of the scene _shattered_. “What?!”

Kageyama seemed completely unphased by the change in tone, and for a moment Hinata was jealous of his drunkenness. “So I made you put on my shirt,” Kageyama mumbled. “That ended up being just as bad, though, ‘cause you weren’t wearing pants.” He chuckled, balling the fabric of Hinata’s shirt into his fist. “Damn, I was thirsty that night. Never thought I’d look at you like that.”

Hinata’s eyes widened, his mind totally frozen and unable to work correctly. “Huh…? Like… like what?”

Kageyama rose his head, and Hinata’s heart was pounding with… hope? He was certain that Kageyama was going to confess something massive to him.

“Fuck, yes. I love this song.” Kageyama suddenly pushed himself off of a severely bemused Hinata. When Hinata tried to question what Kageyama was talking about, the setter put a finger to his lips. “Shut up for a bit,” he said, spinning on his heel and strolling lopsidedly away from Hinata.

Hinata watched, flummoxed, as Kageyama pushed past a group of people and _dropped it fucking low._ Hinata had never seen anything so perfect. “Oh, my god,” he squeaked as he stared at Kageyama. “Ohhhh, my god. Oh, my god!” He scrambled out of the room, searching desperately for Tanaka. If there was one person who absolutely needed to see this, it was him.

Hinata barreled through the house, pushing through clusters of people, and found Tanaka sprawled on a couch next to Suga. The two of them were talking quietly with each other, beers in hand, their faces red. It was kind of an odd sight, but Hinata didn’t bother questioning it. As Hinata approached, Tanaka looked a little disappointed to be distracted from Suga. “What is it?” he asked, sitting up a bit.

“Tanaka, you need to see something!” Hinata grabbed Tanaka’s arm, bouncing with excitement. “Kageyama’s dancing! It’s priceless!”

Tanaka’s face lit up. “Are you serious?!” He shot to his feet, setting his beer down in favor of fishing his phone out of his pocket and grabbing Suga’s hand. “Lead the way,” he said. “Show me this masterpiece.”

Grinning, Hinata yanked Tanaka across the house, leading his little train to where Kageyama was. A little space had cleared around him at this point, probably because he was being horrible clumsy and he’d likely knocked a few too many people out of the way. Nevertheless, he was doing a considerably good job at drawing the attention of the room. His dancing was a little sloppy and off-beat, but it was clear that everyone was enjoying the sight, and that Kageyama was enjoying himself. Since Kageyama was fairly athletic, he actually pulled some impressive moves, though quite a few of them ended up with him landing straight on his butt. It was silly, but very fun to watch. Tanaka chortled and recorded the whole thing on his phone as Hinata stared, grinning dopily. He was definitely going to hold this against Kageyama later…

After the song had ended and all of the commotion had died down, Hinata led the tired, stumbling Kageyama to one of the couches in the living room. Tanaka and Suga came along, settling onto a nearby loveseat. The amusement from the event sparkled clearly in the air, making their little group sigh and giggle over and over again.

As Hinata sat down next to Kageyama, he caught Tanaka’s eye. Tanaka flashed him a grin and a thumbs-up, accompanied by a supportive smile from Suga. Hinata could only guess what they were trying to imply, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about the guesses that came to mind. There was no way that Hinata’s errant feelings were that easy to see, was there? He wasn’t some ardent schoolgirl trying to ask out her crush; he was just keeping his best friend company. Nevertheless, Tanaka and Suga seemed to know what was up a little too well. They both gave encouraging nods to Hinata before they returned their attention to each other, leaving Hinata alone with Kageyama and his stupid feelings.

“S-So,” Hinata muttered to Kageyama, groping for something to break the silence with. He wasn’t eager to go back to what they’d been talking about before the whole dancing debacle, so he ended up giving up and saying something painfully generic. “You having fun tonight?”

Normally, Hinata would’ve expected Kageyama to criticize his stupid question, but it seemed like drunk Kageyama didn’t mind Hinata’s trouble with his words. “Yeah,” the setter sighed. “Didn’t know beer would make things this much fun.”

Hinata puffed out a breath of a chuckle, leaning back on the couch as Kageyama did the same. “Neither did I. Don’t make a habit out of getting drunk, though.” Kageyama’s only response was a barely coherent mumble, so Hinata didn’t press things. No point in telling a drunk person not to drink in the future. “Y’know,” Hinata murmured after a moment, glancing over to Kageyama. “Your face is all red. It’s…” He hesitated a bit, but he figured that as long as Kageyama was drunk, he’d be free to generally say whatever. “Kinda cute.”

Kageyama snorted, making Hinata realize how ridiculous he’d sounded. “Cute? I’m not cute, dumbass.”

“Of course you are!” Hinata smiled and brushed a wisp of hair out of Kageyama’s face, his touch gaining an odd new tenderness. “You’re very cute”

“Don’t argue with me,” Kageyama grumbled in reply, leaning his head on Hinata’s shoulder. “Don’t mess up my hair, either.”

A smirk tugged at Hinata’s lips as he tousled Kageyama’s hair, fluffing it up in every direction. “Like that?” he chirped while Kageyama pawed at his head in an attempt to fix his hair.

“Yeah,” Kageyama huffed into Hinata’s shoulder, eventually giving up on the newly fluffed mess on his head and letting his hands drop to his sides. “Like that.”

“Oh, okay! I won’t do it, then!” Hinata beamed.

“You’re an asshole,” muttered Kageyama.

Hinata raised his eyebrows, amused to the brim by Kageyama. “I’m not an asshole, though! I have a torso, and limbs!”

Kageyama replied with an unimpressed glare that was clearly masking a little bit of laughter. Huffing, the setter tugged Hinata closer and nestled himself comfortably against him, gladly using him as a pillow. Hinata couldn’t possibly get over how cute Kageyama was, with his cuddliness and his messy hair. It made Hinata want to squeal with delight and squish Kageyama’s cheeks. He was just so _precious_. Hinata had always thought that the phrase “butterflies in the stomach” was incredibly silly, but it seemed to be the best way to describe the way his gut seemed to be doing backflips as he looked at Kageyama.

Hinata’s thoughts were stirred when Kageyama’s voice rose from where his face was buried into Hinata’s shoulder. Hinata could barely make out a couple words that he setter was saying, so he sat up a bit and cocked his head at Kageyama, humming inquisitively.

Kageyama looked up at Hinata, a hazy look in his eyes. “Oh, well… my brain keeps telling me I’m in love with you, but I think it’s stupid and that it needs to mind its own business.”

Hinata chuckled a bit at Kageyama’s wording, but he stopped dead as the meaning of the words slapped him in the face. There was no way he’d heard that right. “W-Wait, _what?_ ” Hinata felt his chest tighten as his heartbeat thrummed louder than his thoughts, leaving him totally disconnected from reason.

Kageyama, nowhere near as stressed about the situation as Hinata, puffed out a torpid chuckle. Hinata was acutely aware of how Kageyama’s breath burst across his skin, giving rise to goosebumps and sending a chill down his spin. Wow, Kageyama really was way too close now. “Well,” mumbled the setter. “It kinda is my brain’s business, now that I think about it. So, I guess it’s right. I’m pretty damn in love with you.”

In a night of impossible events, that phrase seemed the most absolutely unreal to Hinata. It was ludicrous; Kageyama would never say something like that. Except he had, and it couldn’t have been a lie, because Kageyama was drunk, and there was no way he would be able to lie while drunk without it sounding totally ridiculous, and, oh no, Hinata was starting to feel horrible dizzy.

With each thought that ran through Hinata’s mind, he was dragged further into reality, the warm, lighthearted mood of the scene being ripped to shreds as guilt crept across Hinata’s skin. He’d just heard something that he was not meant to hear. Even if it was something that Kageyama was planning to tell Hinata, it was clear that the alcohol in the setter’s system had destroyed a barrier that he’d put there on purpose. Hinata knew that he hadn’t done anything really wrong, but knowing that he’d taken a look into a hidden part of Kageyama made him feel horrendously guilty. When he really thought about it, he should’ve been happy to hear this; Kageyama was in love with him! That was a great thing! But, nothing about this felt quite right. Maybe he’d be able to just pretend that this never happened; Kageyama would probably forget about it, anyway. And then, they’d be able to try this again, and do it right. But, knowing the truth made Hinata feel like he’d never be able to really do it right. It would be like pretending to be excited about a gift that he’d peeked at. He wasn’t supposed to know it. This was so wrong…

“Oy. Dumbass.”

Hinata squeaked, startled by the starkness of Kageyama’s voice. “Hm…?”

Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s face out of nowhere, squishing his cheeks with a deadpan expression. “What’s wrong?”

Hinata pushed Kageyama’s hand away, his brow furrowing. “Huh…?”

“You look upset. What is it?” There was a thick layer of concern in Kageyama’s voice that Hinata had never heard before. It actually managed to calm down Hinata’s restless mind a bit.

“I just…” Hinata sighed, shrugging hopelessly. The imponderous carelessness of the night had flown away, weighing Hinata down too much for him to speak his mind as freely as he had earlier.

“What?” Kageyama prodded.

Hinata avoided Kageyama’s gaze and replied with a tiny shrug. He couldn’t crawl out of the shame that had enveloped him. It was so frustrating; he should’ve been thrilled that Kageyama felt such a way. But it was difficult to be happy about intruding on Kageyama’s privacy.

After a painfully long silence, Kageyama made Hinata jump by doing something massively unexpected. He cupped Hinata’s cheek and tipped his head up with a delicate touch that Hinata had no idea that the setter was capable of. When Hinata met Kageyama’s eyes, there was an inquisitive look across the setter’s face. “What is it…?” Kageyama pressed, his voice low. “Did I fuck something up? Do you think I’m creepy?”

“N-No!” Hinata objected without an ounce of hesitation. “You’re only creepy sometimes! You’re not now.”

Kageyama’s features crinkled in confusion. “So, I didn’t mess up?”

Hinata puffed out something pretty close to a bitter laugh. “I think you might’ve messed something up, but that’s something you’ll have to worry about when you’re sober.”

A quiver of fright flickered across Kageyama’s eyes. “I did? What’d I do?”

“You kind of… said something you probably didn’t want to say,” explained Hinata with a wince.

Realization loosened Kageyama’s face. “Oh. All that stuff about you was a secret, because…” He trailed off and wetted his lips before continuing, a weight of devastation to his voice. “Because you don’t love me.”

“That’s not right,” said Hinata firmly without thinking. He regretted the words the instant that he saw Kageyama’s eyes flach up to him. He couldn’t take back what he’d said, but he didn’t want to say anything out loud yet. No more confessions tonight. He wanted to just leave things as they were now, and, hopefully, Kageyama would  about it all when tomorrow came. Then they’d be able to do things correctly. This… it felt like it was breaking sequence.

Kageyama’s thumb brushed against Hinata’s lower lip, and Hinata realized, with a start, that Kageyama’s hand was still resting on his face. “So, does that mean…” Kageyama murmured, his eyes flicking across Hinata’s face as he leaned into Hinata’s breathing space. “Does that mean that you… do love me?” Hinata couldn’t summon any words, so he just nodded a tiny bit, frozen in place, all of his nerves set on edge. “Do you… wanna be with me?” Something in Kageyama’s voice implied a billion different meanings to that little statement, and Hinata agreed with every one of them. He nodded again, slow and tentative. Maybe he didn’t want Kageyama to forget about tonight. “I wanna be with you,” Kageyama muttered simply. He slid his thumb against Hinata’s lip again, and holy shit, Hinata had no idea that his lips were this sensitive, and all logic fluttered away from Hinata’s mind, and Kageyama was leaning closer, and _yes, yes, yes…!_

And Hinata tasted the alcohol in Kageyama’s breath, and his heart came to a stop, and _no, no, no!_ Not like this. It couldn’t happen like this. Hinata hated to do this; his lips were tingling, and he just needed to feel Kageyama. But, this just wasn’t right to do.

“No.” Hinata pulled solemnly away from Kageyama, shaking his head. Seeing the utter disappointment on Kageyama’s features squeezed his heart tight, but he didn’t give into the pain. “Well, not no,” he explained shakily, sweeping his fingers through Kageyama’s hair. “Just… not yet. Not now. Okay?”

Much to Hinata’s relief, Kageyama didn’t seem to take it too personally. He nodded a little and buried his face into Hinata’s chest, sighing softly. Though it was weird for Kageyama to be so quiet and pliant, Hinata had to admit that he kind of liked him like this. It was a little difficult not to like him when he was being so affectionate, though.

Hinata yelped when the weight on the couch shifted, reminding him that he and Kageyama weren’t the only people at the party. He was actually kind of impressed that he’d managed to effectively ignore everything around him in favor of focusing on Kageyama. He shot a curious glance over to the other side of the couch and saw, of all people, Noya. He was sprawled sloppily across the arm of the couch, a haziness in his expression making it clear that he’d had a considerable amount to drink.

“Yo,” Noya greeted. “I swung by here to see what Tanaka was up to, and here you two are. You’re havin’ some fun, aren’t ya? Or is he just sleepy?”

Hinata shrugged and ruffled Kageyama’s hair. “Well, he’s pretty friendly like this.”

“So, he’s a chill drunk?” Noya smirked. “I’ll admit, I never woulda thought that. Never thought I’d see him cuddling with anyone, either, though.”

Hinata stiffened. “C-Cuddling?! Oh, shit, we are cuddling, aren’t we? Shit, I, uh, I just… he’s tired.” A harsh blush crawled up Hinata’s neck as he stammered, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

Noya sniggered, and Hinata became overly aware of Kageyama’s weight on his chest. “Yeah, sure,” scoffed Noya. “He’s just tired. That explains the dopey-ass smile on his face.”

“Huh…?” Hinata furrowed his brow and craned his neck to look at Kageyama’s face. Surely enough, Kageyama was grinning lazily, his eyes shut and his cheek smooshed against Hinata’s chest. Hinata was pretty sure that the image could’ve killed him; it was about the most precious thing he’d seen in his life. Kageyama looked so perfectly content, like he could just lie there like that forever. Hinata had seen some of Kageyama’s smiles before, and they were horrendous, because they were almost always forced, but this one was pure and honest, and it was gorgeous. Breathtaking, even.

An amused chuckle came from Noya, snapping Hinata out of his thoughts. “Man, you’re so far gone. And he’s not your boyfriend yet?” Noya let out a frustrated sigh when Hinata shook his head. “Damn. I owe Asahi some cash, then.” He rolled his eyes and stood up, turning away. “Hurry up and get on makin’ that dummy your boyfriend,” he added over his shoulder before heading off, leaving Hinata confused and embarrassed. Was Noya making bets on whether or not he and Kageyama were dating?

Hinata was about to get up and pursue Noya, but Kageyama pinned him to the couch, clinging to his shirt. Hinata looked down to see that Kageyama was buried face-first in his chest. “Don’t leave,” he whined, his voice muffled. “You’re comfy.”

A soft smile broke across Hinata’s face and he smoothed down Kageyama’s hair soothingly, settling back onto the couch comfortably. “I’m not leaving. C’mere.” He sat up straighter, tilting up Kageyama’s head to face him. There were lines across his face from the folds in Hinata’s shirt, which, Hinata thought, was absolutely adorable. Fuck, Noya was right… Hinata was so far gone for Kageyama. “You tired?” Hinata cooed, playing with the soft hairs on the back of Kageyama’s neck.

“Only a little…” mumbled Kageyama, leaning into the touch.

“D’you wanna go home?” Hinata offered.

**  
A minimal nod was all that Kageyama responded with, so Hinata pushed himself to his feet, pulling the setter with. He hooked an arm around Kageyama’s waist and started towards the door. It was odd to have someone so much taller than Hinata putting so much weight on him, but it was tolerable because of how much he liked being close to Kageyama. As they made their way slowly across the floor, Hinata refused to let go of Kageyama. He was fairly sure that this would be the only time that he’d get to be so close to Kageyama, so he savored it as best as he could.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama's being distant as can be, so Hinata reaches out for some help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still trying to make up for the big pause by postin this next chapter super quick!! The one after this might take a while, but its adorable as hell I promise <33

Hinata shuffled up to the gym, having arrived a bit early to practice in hopes of running into Kageyama. He hadn’t seen the setter since the night of the party, so he’d had a lot of time to himself to stress over what had happened and how he would try to sort things out. He’d sent a couple texts to Kageyama the day after the party, but he’d gotten no responses, so he’d been getting more and more worried since then.

When Hinata poked his head through the door, he heard a low conversation coming from inside. “You did _what?_ ” The first voice Hinata heard was Daichi’s, his tone dangerously quiet.

“Listen, I didn’t think…” answered the second voice. Hinata identified it as Tanaka’s, which was odd, because there was an uncharacteristic weight of shame to it. “We were drunk, a-and he was hot, and… things just happened.”

“ _Things_ like that don’t just happen!” When Daichi spoke, there was a harsh edge to his words that made Hinata flinch. He knew now that he was listening to a conversation that wasn’t meant for his ears. He considered revealing himself for a moment, but he figured that it would’ve been better to just leave. For some reason, though, he found curiosity getting the better of him and keeping him in place. “For fuck’s sake, Tanaka, I thought you were better than that!”

“W-Woah, calm down, alright?” Tanaka said, frantic. “I promise I’ll fix this!”

“Just… just don’t, okay? You’ve done enough.” The edge to Daichi’s voice had left, but it seemed more from exhaustion than anything else. “I get it. You were drunk. I’ll fix this myself. Thank you for telling me directly.”

Before Hinata could eavesdrop on anything else, a greeting that he’d been hoping to hear all day came from behind him. “Oy, dumbass.”

Immediately, Hinata’s breath was sucked from his lungs, his heart lodging in his throat. Fuck, he’d been so anxious to see Kageyama, but now that he was right behind him, he clammed right up. All of the times that he’d imagined this conversation throughout the day flew away from his mind, leaving him completely blank. What was he going to say? Was Kageyama angry with him?

Hinata heard Kageyama click his tongue behind him, making him jump a bit. “Idiot, I’m talking to you,” Kageyama barked. “Don’t linger in doors like that. It’s rude.” A yelp erupted from Hinata as Kageyama grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him out of the way. Hinata hastily spun on his heel to face Kageyama, but the setter wasn’t looking his way as he walked briskly through the door. Hinata squeaked and scurried in after him, forgetting briefly about the altercation that he’d been listening in on earlier. That meant, of course, that he and Kageyama walked in on the upperclassmen standing there with their mouths half-open, their exchange sloppily cut short.

For a few seconds, everyone just stood still, the tension in the air thick and impossible to ignore. After a moment, though, Tanaka came to the rescue. “Heyyy, Kageyama!” he greeted, trying desperately to smother the unease. “How’d ya deal with your first hangover?” As he spoke, Hinata saw Daichi shrink behind him, likely disconnecting himself from the conversation so that he had time to calm down.

“Fine,” Kageyama replied stiffly. “It wasn’t as bad as everyone says. I wasn’t that drunk, anyway.”

Tanaka narrowed his eyes, glancing between Hinata and Kageyama. “You’re totally lying, dude. You were so off of it at the party.”

The hostility that showed on Kageyama’s face made it clear that Tanaka had overstepped a line. “I was not that drunk,” he snarled. “And I will deny anything you think I did or said that night.” His words were tense and practiced, as if he’d been planning to say them since the conversation had started.

A flash of hurt crossed Hinata’s features as he thought about Kageyama’s words. “But, we--”

Tanaka shot a warning look at Hinata, stopping his words. “Well,” he chimed as Hinata shrunk back. “I’ve got quite a bit of evidence of what happened, so…”

Kageyama’s eyes widened a fraction. “You what?”

“Yep!” Tanaka smirked and produced his phone, waving it around. “I couldn’t not immortalize your _wonderful_ dance moves!”

Kageyama lunged at Tanaka, immediately snatching the phone from his hands. Tanaka just shrugged him off and crossed his arms. “Do whatever you want, long as you don’t break my phone,” he said. “I already sent the video off to, like, a billion people.” A wolfish smile crept across his face as Kageyama lowered the phone, his jaw dropping. It seemed like Tanaka wasn’t done, though, because he went on: “Took a few pics of you cuddling with Hinata, too.” He chortled as he proudly strode by and swiped his phone from Kageyama’s hands.

“You _what?!_ ” Kageyama’s voice went up to a pitch that Hinata didn’t even know he could reach.

A proud guffaw erupted from Tanaka. “Didn’t send ‘em around, but I figured I’d save ‘em.”

As Tanaka spoke, a rush of confusion and betrayal poured over Hinata. “W-Wait,” he stammered. “I didn’t know you did that.”

Tanaka seemed about to reply, but Kageyama cut him off, his voice sharp and loud. “No! Fuck no! We never cuddled, or flirted, o-or anything! Shut up!”

Hinata winced at Kageyama’s outburst. “Kageyama, we kind of--”

“No!” Kageyama stomped his foot and shook his head adamantly.

“I got pictures,” Tanaka pointed out, not helping the situation much. “So, if you want me to prove it…”

“Shut up!” Kageyama shouted, cutting Tanaka off. “I’m not dealing with this shit!” With that, the setter spun on his heel and started towards the door of the gym. Hinata scurried up to him and grabbed his arm, trying fruitlessly to hold him back.

“Kageyama, I’m sorry!” Hinata whimpered. “I promise, I won’t bother you about the party anymore! Don’t leave…”

The setter didn’t even look Hinata’s way; he just shrugged him right off. “Get off,” he hissed, a jarring intensity to his voice that made Hinata flinch away.

Hinata watched helplessly as Kageyama stormed out of the gym. Guilt roiled in his chest as he shrunk away, taking a trembling breath. He’d never felt so ashamed of his feelings…

~~//~~

Hinata threw himself on his bed, his chest heavy. He’d never had a day so tiring, even considering the most intense of practices. The thick, gross fatigue that weighed him down was much worse than a sore muscle, or a sickness, or anything physical; it was exhausting him on so many layers of his very existence. Was this what heartbreak felt like?

Sighing, Hinata rolled over onto his back. His head was clouded with thoughts about his stupid setter, and he couldn’t even hope to stop it. No matter what he thought about, his mind found a way to route it back to his infatuation. Volleyball? Kageyama. School? Kageyama. Pudding? Somehow, Kageyama. His brain just kept defaulting to him! It was infuriating, but there was no way Hinata could escape it. So, he just lay there, tired, as his mind turned the same thought over and over. _Kageyama, Kageyama, Kageyama…_

Hinata’s pocket buzzed, making him yelp. Sloppily, he yanked his phone out of his pocket and tried to calm the hammering of his heart. He’d been trying to text Kageyama since the fiasco at practice, and he’d been anxious for any response from the setter. Much to his dismay, the name that flashed on the screen was Tanaka’s.

When Hinata opened the message, he was greeted with a dark, off-center picture that he could’ve only guessed was from the party. The image was of him and Kageyama, curled around each other on the couch. The message underneath read: “sorry bout forgetting to tell you about the pics. took em when i was drunk, so yeah. hope you like it ;)”

Hinata’s heart stung as he looked at the picture. The last thing he needed right now was a reminder of these moments. Nevertheless, he saved the image to his phone. He did kind of like seeing Kageyama like he was that night, all pink in the face and grinning dopily. Perhaps he’d be able to look back on the photo fondly later on.

With a little sigh, Hinata held his phone to his chest and lay back, staring at the ceiling as he remembered those lovely, harmonious moments. He thought of Kageyama leaning on him with his flushed face, his breath tickling Hinata’s neck. He thought of the contented smile on Kageyama’s face, and his mumbled, sweet words, and… “Gosh,” he sighed into the empty air, his heart soaring. Mere thoughts of being close to Kageyama made Hinata feel like he was a mile high lately.

An insouciant smile unfurled across Hinata’s face as he thought about how hopelessly gone he was for Kageyama. He didn’t know that a simple feeling could affect him physically in such a strong way; waves came over him that made his smile broaden and his toes curl. He felt like a soft current was pushing through his veins, sending giddiness to every inch of his skin and making him feel so light that he could float. It was almost comical how clumsily Hinata was stumbling over himself for the setter. He’d never felt this was towards anyone before, and he hadn’t expected Kageyama, of all people, to floor him so much.

Humming, Hinata pulled his phone out and checked it out of habit. Seeing his empty inbox vanquished his fanciful feelings, bringing him crashing down to reality. Sure, he was madly enamored with Kageyama, but that didn’t matter much when Kageyama wasn’t talking to him at all. He was pretty sure that he hadn’t even seen Kageyama’s face head-on since the party. As Hinata’s thoughts dipped into anguish, he felt himself slipping into the emotional fatigue that he’d felt earlier. There was no way that he’d be able to be with Kageyama the way that he wanted to…

Hinata groaned and sat up, looking down at his phone. At this point, his emotions were being so senseless that he knew he needed help. He grabbed his phone and sifted through the contacts. There had to be someone that he could talk to about this… oh! Suga’s name crossed the screen, making Hinata perk up. He was a super helpful person! He’d given Hinata loads of advice before, so it seemed like a good idea to ask him for relationship advice.

Fueled with motivation to fix things, Hinata jabbed the call button and held his phone to his ear, biting his nails. Suga had to have some sort of solution to this…

“Hi, Hinata!” Suga’s voice arrived on the other end. “What’s--”

“Kageyama hates me!”

Hinata could hear the brief moment of silence as Suga tried to fathom his outburst. “I… I’m sorry? What’s this about?”

Hinata went right ahead and spilled all of his feelings; Suga had seen him and Kageyama at the party, so it wasn’t like there was much that was worth hiding. “Okay, so Kageyama is being a jerk and ignoring me but he’s not really being a jerk because it’s my fault, I think, and I think he’d upset about what happened at the party ‘cause when Tanaka mentioned it he flipped out, so it’d make sense that he was angry about it but I dunno why he’d be angry about anything, except maybe the dancing, because everything we did was really nice and we almost kissed but I didn’t do it because he was drunk, and maybe I should’ve done that ‘cause he might be mad about that, but otherwise I didn’t do anything wrong and he told me some really important stuff but now he’s being mean so the only explanation is that he hates me.”

There was a long pause, and Hinata was pretty sure that Suga was regretting answering the phone. “Alright, so that was… fast. But, from what I can gather, Kageyama’s ignoring you?”

“Uh huh.”

“And he seems angry, er, angrier than usual?”

“Yes.”

“And you almost kissed?”

“Yep.”

“Okay,” Suga said, his tone making it clear that he was a bit staggered by the challenge that he’d been presented. “So… how do you know he’s ignoring you because of something you did?”

“Why else would he ignore me?” Hinata replied hastily. He found himself getting a little impatient. Why was Suga talking so slow? Hinata just wanted him to hurry up and fix things!

Much to Hinata’s dismay, Suga’s speech remained slow. “Something else might’ve happened to him that made him upset.”

“Like what? Kageyama never does anything outside school and volleyball. I practically had to drag him to the party.” Hinata huffed.

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

Suga sighed, the sound crackling in Hinata’s ear. “Fine. So, why would he be angry about the party?”

“He’s probably angry about the video being sent around, but I didn’t do that and he wasn’t being as much of a jerk to Tanaka, so…”

“Well…” Suga started to say something, but he drew it back. “Has he said anything to you?”

“He said a little this morning,” Hinata replied. “But it wasn’t much. He sounded like he was trying to be casual. It was hard to understand.”

Suga hummed. “So, was he trying not to be upset with you?”

“Maybe?” Hinata sighed. “I don’t know. I really just wanna know what he’s upset about, so I can figure out how to fix it.”

“Did anything really… major happen at the party?” Suga asked tentatively. “Aside from the kiss, at least.”

“H-He, uh…” Hinata bit his lip and tried to conjure a set of words that didn’t want to be made real. “He said that he loved me. Is he upset because he told me a secret without meaning to?”

“Maybe.” Suga sounded pleased. “How did you respond when he… confessed?”

Hinata’s eyes flicked up as he recalled that night. The events had stuck so strongly in his head that it was a breeze to unearth them, though they were a little reluctant to come to light all the way, so it wasn’t easy to say them aloud. “Well, I didn’t, er… I didn’t wanna say anything, ‘cause he was drunk and I didn’t want things to play out like that, but I… er, he asked me if I loved him, a-and I was too embarrassed to say anything, but I did… I did nod.” Hinata took in a shaky breath before continuing. “Do you think he’s upset because I didn’t answer properly?”

“Possibly,” was Suga’s reply, slow and gentle as always. Somewhere along the line, Hinata had stopped being impatient and annoyed by Suga’s steady tempo. It was almost comforting now. “You said you didn’t want things to go that way. It makes sense; it wasn’t exactly the nicest setting. Do you think that Kageyama felt the same?”

Hinata perked up. “Oh! So is he angry because he messed up the timing? Why would he be angry at me for that, though…?”

“He might not be angry with you,” Suga pointed out. “Maybe he’s just upset.”

Hinata hummed, putting a finger to his chin. “So we need to cheer him up!”

“I-I don’t know if--”

“What makes Kageyama happy? Does he like cake? Puppies? Everyone likes puppies, right? Maybe he’s allergic, though. We could throw him a party! Wait, that’s probably bad since everything’s bad because of a party in the first place. Should we give him a gift? Or, maybe, we should do a big, pretty, romantic confession to make up for the crappy one. Maybe I should buy him dinner. What else makes Kageyama happy? Should we just do everything to make sure we cover all the bases?” Hinata found himself bouncing with excitement. Cheering Kageyama up was starting to seem like a plausible idea. A fun one, too.

There was a significant silence on the other end as Suga let Hinata’s rapid fire of ideas set in. “Wait,” he mumbled. “That doesn’t sound half bad.”

“Really?” Hinata gasped. “Where d’you think we could get a puppy?”

“N-No, not that,” Suga said, chuckling. “I mean, like, maybe we could do something romantic for him.”

“Should we? D’you think he’d like that?” Hinata was bubbling with eagerness; he absolutely adored the idea of doing something sweet and romantic with Kageyama.

“I’m not sure if he really will, but, well…” Suga’s voice made it evident that he was smiling as he spoke. “I’m a sucker for romantic stuff…”

A grin crossed Hinata’s face. “Oh, Suga, that’s sweet!”

“Shush! I’m trying to help you!” The smile that showed in Suga’s voice grew.

“Still,” cooed Hinata. “You’re very sweet, Suga; I’m sure you’d be able to fix any relationship problem ever!”

Suga sighed. “I certainly hope so…” he mumbled. “Nevertheless. We should put together something pretty.”

“Should I take him to dinner?”

**  
Suga seemed to sort of like the idea. “Y’know, that might not be the worst idea. Maybe lunch? Somewhere pretty? A picnic? There’s this gorgeous park that Daichi took me to a while back…”**


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lovely picnic~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favorite chapter in the whole thing~ its suuuper adorable! Hope you like it <333

Hinata marvelled, wide-eyed, at the bright scene before him. A wide, green park spread from beneath his feet, the field of grass broken sporadically by trees, paths, benches, and, in the center, an extravagant fountain. The weather was perfect; a clear cerulean sky and a warm golden sun casting the park in a fine glow. Hinata was pretty sure that the setting couldn’t possibly be more picturesque.

Despite how happy Hinata was with the gorgeous landscape, there was a roiling nervousness in his gut that was impossible to ignore. He kept second-guessing himself. Did he look alright? Would Kageyama like this? Would he even show up?

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Suga’s voice came from next to Hinata. “It’s one of the most romantic places I’ve been to. Kissing someone in front of that fountain is like something straight out of a movie.”

Hinata raised an eyebrow and elbowed Suga in the side. “Oh, really? Didn’t know you were such a casanova, Suga!”

“Oh, shush.” Suga puffed out a chuckle, a blush dusting his cheeks.

As Hinata looked up at Suga, who was gazing over the area with a bashful smile on his face, he felt a little burst of confidence. If Suga loved this place so much, who wouldn’t? Surely Kageyama would like it. “Thank you so so so much,” Hinata chimed, wrapping his arms tightly around the upperclassman. “I owe you a billion times over for helping!”

Hinata felt Suga’s chest shake as he chuckled, patting Hinata’s head. “It’s nothing,” he said. “I’m sure everyone wants to see you two resolve all your stuff.”

Hinata pulled away and cocked his head. “Really? Does everyone know we have stuff to resolve?”

Suga ruffled Hinata’s hair. “Pretty much. It’s kinda obvious. Don’t worry, though. I don’t think Kageyama can tell.” He giggled. “Nevertheless, let’s get things ready. I’ll probably be around the park the whole time, so I’ll know what’s up. You got everything you need?”

Hinata nodded, holding up the decorated picnic basket in his hand. “You’re idea’s the cutest, Suga!”

“You’re the one that suggested food in the first place. I just adapted it a bit.” Suga glanced at his phone. “Right. He should be here in a couple minutes. I told him to meet us at the fountain.”

Hinata’s heartbeat became deafening as he followed Suga to the landmark in the middle of the park. He was incredibly excited to see Kageyama, but he was also terrified. What if Kageyama actually hated him? What if that confession at the party hadn’t been true? He was stuck in a constant loop of getting his hopes up and then telling himself just how ridiculous it was that he thought he could ever be with Kageyama. It felt like he had fallen from a building, and he was hoping dearly to survive, but all it took was a glance down to the ground below to remind him about his inevitable fate.

Suga seemed to notice Hinata’s unease as they neared their destination. “You’ll be fine,” he placated. “I bet Kageyama is just as nervous as you are right now.”

Hinata stuffed his hands in his pockets. “B-But what if he doesn’t really like me? I dunno what I’d do if he didn’t…”

“I’m sure he does. You’re alright.” Suga patted Hinata’s shoulder as they stepped onto the paved area around the fountain. Hinata tried desperately to level out his breathing and ignore the worry that twisted his gut. He shouldn’t have been so anxious; he practically saw Kageyama every day. Nevertheless, he found his hands trembling and his pulse throbbing in his head. The butterflies that nested in his gut must have been having a furious orgy, considering how violently they were fluttering.

Chewing on his lower lip, Hinata searched for Kageyama’s form among the park. He noticed that he was dreading the sight just as much as he was hoping for it, and he wondered how he could possible fear something that he wanted so badly. How was he supposed to be with Kageyama if he couldn’t even figure out his own jumble of feelings?

“Ah, there he is!” Suga perked up and waved a hand in the air, grinning. Hinata followed his gaze and quickly found Kageyama standing across from them on the little square around the fountain. When Hinata saw him, he felt a jolt go through his head, like alarms were sounding in his mind. He found himself gaping helplessly as Kageyama approached; he had absolutely no idea what to do now. Instinctively, he held onto Suga’s shirt like a lost duckling, silently asking for help. Why did Kageyama have to be so frightening?

Hinata squeaked when Kageyama’s eyes fell on him. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing to Suga. “He looks petrified.”

“Oh, he’s, uh.” Suga unclamped Hinata’s hand and nudged him towards Kageyama. “He’s fine.”

Hinata steadied himself, feeling terribly exposed without Suga right next to him. “Uh, y-yeah. I’m f… fine.”

“So.” Suga clapped his hands, rocking back on his heels. “I’m not gonna hang out with you two, but I’ll stick around here ‘cause I’m Hinata’s ride, so I’m gonna go…” He took a step back, and Hinata braced himself to be left alone with Kageyama.

“Oy, dumbass, why’re your eyes shut?” Kageyama nudged Hinata, making him squeak.

“I-I, uh.” Hinata shuffled his feet. He hadn’t realized that his instincts had made him squeeze his eyes shut when he’d braced himself. “Sorry,” he mumbled with a weak, helpless chuckle.

Kageyama clicked his tongue. “Whatever. What’d you want me here for?”

“Oh!” Hinata held up his picnic basket, beaming. “We’re having a picnic! C’mon!” Using enthusiasm to mask his nervousness, he grabbed Kageyama’s hand and started to lead him out across the broad surface of grass that was the park.

“Wait, what? A picnic?” Despite the incredulity in Kageyama’s voice, he didn’t seem to be resisting, which brought Hinata some relief. “I thought you said this was something important!”

“It is!” Hinata puffed out his cheeks and pouted at Kageyama over his shoulder. The pout must’ve been exceptionally cute, because the sneer on Kageyama’s face dropped with remarkable speed. The softer expression only lasted a moment, though, because a scowl returned as Hinata let out a triumphant giggle. It might’ve only worked for a moment, but Hinata was definitely going to remember that his pout had actually worked on Kageyama.

“I still don’t see why this is important,” grumbled Kageyama.

“It’s important because it’ll make you happy,” Hinata explained as he paused his walking to inspect a nice, level spot to sit down at.

Kageyama’s eyebrows shot up. “When was it said that this would make me happy?”

Hinata just shrugged as he set down his picnic basket. Suga had packed and decorated it, so it had a quaint, pretty feel to it, right down to the red checkered blanket. “Well,” Hinata hummed, smiling at Kageyama. “You must be at least okay with this.”

“What makes you say that?” Kageyama prodded, dubiety in his voice.

“You haven’t let go of my hand yet,” Hinata pointed out simply, the grin that crossed his face synchronous with the blush that painted Kageyama’s cheeks. The setter yanked his hand away like it had suddenly caught on fire, glaring intensely the ground in front of Hinata.

A bright giggle bubbled from Hinata as he pulled the blanket from the basket, unfolding it and nearly toppling back on the grass as he tried to hold it up at its full height. “This is… overwhelming,” he observed. “Kageyama, could you help me?” When he looked over to Kageyama, he saw that the setter had a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking. “W-What’s wrong?” Hinata squeaked. Kageyama jumped and looked away, his ears turning red. “What is iiit?” whined Hinata.

Kageyama took in a slow breath and faced Hinata, the neutral expression on his face clearly a little forced. “It’s nothing,” he hissed. “D’you need help?” Hinata nodded pitifully, trying desperately to hold the blanket up. Why did _everything_ have to be taller than him? Kageyama puffed out a tiny, amused breath as he picked up the side of the blanket opposite to Hinata. The frustratingly large blanket soared above his head as Kageyama lifted it and spread it out, setting it on the ground between them. “This good?” he asked.

Hinata nodded and mumbled a bashful “Thank you…” as he plopped onto the blanket, setting the basket atop it. He started to fish out the little plastic containers of food that he and Suga had worked together to prepare. There was nothing really special in the basket; it was only packed with sandwiches and other various snacks. When Hinata had set up a nice array of food, he looked up to see that Kageyama was still standing, watching Hinata with an expression that shifted so quickly that it was impossible to read. Hinata cocked his head inquisitively at Kageyama, but the setter said nothing, so he simply sat back on his heels and patted a spot on the blanket next to him.

As Kageyama sat down, Hinata handed him one of the plastic containers. “It’s all for us, so eat as much as you want!”

Kageyama set the container in front of him and pried it open, mumbling a little “Thank you.” He plucked a strawberry from the case and popped it into his mouth. It wasn’t easy to tell, but he seemed pleased with it.

Hinata, meanwhile, munched on a sandwich cheerily. His gut was still twisting and fluttering all over, but he was doing a fairly good job at hiding it. His confidence was starting to rise a little, too; he’d spent plenty of time with Kageyama, so this shouldn’t have been too bad. Of course, nothing was happening, so he didn’t have much of a reason to be nervous at the moment. Really, he was starting to get a little uncomfortable with the silence…

“So--”

Hinata squeaked and covered his mouth as Kageyama winced. They’d both started talking at the same time. “Y-You can go first,” Hinata stammered. He hadn’t really thought about what he was going to say, anyway.

Kageyama cleared his throat. “Why’re you doing this? There’s no way even you would just put together a picnic on a whim.”

“Uh…” Hinata groped for a reason to use. He couldn’t just say what it was really for, could he? “I just wanted to spend some time with you” There. That was pretty close to the truth.

“You hesitated.” Kageyama’s response made Hinata stiffen. What was he supposed to say?!

Looking away, Hinata shrugged. “I really did wanna spend time with you,” he mumbled. “Is that alright?” He looked up and broke out that perfect pout that had hit Kageyama so well before. He even batted his eyelashes a bit to add to the effect. He had to bite back a snicker as Kageyama’s scowl intensified, his upper lip twitching as he tried to resist Hinata’s wistful expression. Hinata turned up his cuteness levels, leaning closer and letting his lower lip quiver a bit.

It turned out that Hinata had found Kageyama’s weakness, as the setter gave in and puffed out a “Fine,” his cheeks pink. Hinata grinned cheekily, straightening up and taking a bite out of his sandwich. Kageyama looked down, sighing, as he picked at the fruit-filled container in front of him.

Hinata’s expression softened as he looked at Kageyama; he had a grumpy look on his face, and his mouth was full, and he looked totally imperfect, but somehow he still looked adorable. It made Hinata feel so lucky to have been given someone as wonderful as Kageyama. He complimented Hinata fantastically, and, gosh, he was _so cute…_

Kageyama abruptly looked back up at Hinata, making him jump. “What…?” Kageyama muttered, and Hinata realized that he’d said the last part of his thoughts aloud.

“W-What?” was Hinata’s stammered reply.

“You said something.” Kageyama narrowed his eyes.

“ _You_ said something!” Hinata was pretty sure he couldn’t have possibly come up with a worse save.

Kageyama furrowed his brow. “No, I didn’t.”

Hinata perked up and jabbed a finger towards Kageyama, who was directing a confused glare at the digit. “Hah! You just did!”

“Wh… That’s not what I meant! I meant before that!” Kageyama’s flustered expression a little too pleased with himself.

“What’d you say before that?” Hinata cocked his head innocently.

Kageyama wrinkled his nose. “What’re you trying to do?”

“That’s not what you said before.”

“Augh!” Kageyama slapped himself in the forehead out of frustration. “Nevermind!”

“That’s not it, either,” lilted Hinata. The glare that came from Kageyama made Hinata finally crack up. He hooted and chortled louder as Kageyama’s face slowly grew redder and redder. Shutting his eyes, Hinata tried to paw at the tears that threatened to spill over, and when he opened them again, he was staring at the sky. It took him a couple seconds to realize that Kageyama had pushed him over. “Heyyy,” Hinata accused between giggles. “You pushed me!”

“And what if I did?” Kageyama said, his voice dripping with smugness.

“Hyahh!” Hinata rolled over and pounced where he’d heard Kageyama’s voice come from, prepared to take his vengeance. He could practically feel it in his hands… except Kageyama wasn’t there. Hinata ended up falling face-first through nothing, a snicker coming from Kageyama to his left. Hinata felt a harsh blush crawling up his neck as he sat up, pouting. “How’d you move so fast?” he whined.

Kageyama leaned back, acting like he hadn’t heard Hinata as he nonchalantly popped a grape into his mouth. “D’you have a problem?” he said flatly.

Hinata wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, his face burning. “You’re a jerk,” he grumbled. “How can someone so cute be so mean?”

When Kageyama didn’t reply, Hinata looked up at him. The look on his face made Hinata wonder if someone was streaking through the park behind him. After glancing over his shoulder a couple times, Hinata started to wonder if he’d done something wrong. “Kageyama, what’s wrong?” He scooted forward and set a hand on Kageyama’s shoulder.

Kageyama immediately swatted his hand away. “Y-You’re a dumbass,” he growled. The dark flush on his cheeks made Hinata’s heart feel like it had fallen down a flight of stairs. Kageyama’s eyes were flickering everywhere but Hinata for a few moments, but when they finally landed on him, the blush that was already there grew more intense. “What’re you looking at me like that for?” he hissed.

Hinata shrugged, a lightheaded feeling swirling around him. It was almost frightening how quickly this silly, enraptured mood overtook him. “You’re just cute,” he chimed.

****  
  


A bashful expression crossed Kageyama’s features, but it was hastily covered with a scowl. “I-I’m not cute.”

Hinata grinned and swayed cheerily, reaching over to poke Kageyama’s cheek. “You’re very cute.”

Kageyama was glaring so hard that Hinata grew worried that the setter would bite his finger off. “Knock it off,” he snarled, the humor from before gone from his voice.

Hinata shrunk back, his eyebrows drawing together. “Sorry,” he mumbled pitifully. His gut seemed to fall through the ground. Maybe he was pushing things too far.

Kageyama actually seemed to be making an attempt to fix the mood. “Hey,” he said. “I, erm, this was kind of a silly idea, but I like it.”

Hinata felt himself yanked back up by hope, his eyes widening as he looked up at Kageyama. “Really? It was Suga’s idea, actually! Well, I inspired him, but still! He said he loved this park! It’s so pretty, isn’t it? I love this time of year; everything’s so clean and lively. D’you like it?” He’d realized about three sentences in that he was talking too much, but he’d gained too much momentum to stop. It was distracting him from his nervousness, too, so he didn’t really want to stop. He expected to see Kageyama jarred from his sudden peppering of words, but the setter seemed unphased. He popped a grape in his mouth and looked up thoughtfully. Hinata marvelled at how, rather than trying to match his pace, Kageyama took a moment to sort out Hinata’s words before replying. It slowed things down, but not in the way that Suga did that made Hinata impatient; it made the conversation just seem more stable.

“It is really pretty,” Kageyama agreed. The fact that he seemed to be calming down made Hinata relax a bit. “It’s like a scene out of a movie, really.”

Hinata hoped that the scene in Kageyama’s head was as romantic as the one in his own. “You think so? Suga said that, too. We chose a perfect day for this.” Smiling, he scooted a tiny bit closer to Kageyama. He considered saying something cheesy like “It’s almost as perfect as you,” but he figured that even that was going a bit overboard. Besides, if Kageyama was paying enough attention, he’d be able to see the remark spread across Hinata’s features.

Unfortunately, Kageyama wasn’t looking Hinata’s way. He seemed more focused on the landscape than he was on Hinata, which dismayed him. What kind of a guy gave more attention to the environment than to his date? Wait, was this a date? Hinata hoped it was.

“Oy, Shoy-- Dumbass.” Hinata jumped, his eyes widening. Had Kageyama been about to use his first name? “Dumbass,” Kageyama repeated, and Hinata realized that he’d been spacing out for a while now. Blinking vacantly, he addressed Kageyama with a questioning look. “Catch,” said the setter before tossing a grape in Hinata’s direction. Hinata’s instincts overpowered his reasoning, though, so he reflexively spiked the morsel out of the air.

A silence the size of a glacier followed, the pair sitting, dumbfounded by what had happened. Hinata had absolutely no idea how to recover from that. Then from Kageyama came the biggest snort that Hinata had ever heard. Hinata’s gaze jumped to Kageyama, who was nearly falling over with laughter. Contrary to how stiffly Kageyama tried to represent himself, his laughter was the most colossally dorky thing in the universe. He snorted and squeaked, throwing his head back as Hinata’s cheeks became hotter than the surface of the sun. There was something incredibly perfect about it, really. Hinata knew that he should’ve been ashamed or embarrassed, since Kageyama was laughing at him, but wow. There was something more than infatuation going on inside Hinata and it was making his spirit soar right past the sky. The giddiness that came along with it made Hinata snap and start to laugh along. They probably looked so odd to any passersby, doubled over with laughter over seemingly nothing. Hinata loved it.

After they’d both stopped laughing, they ended up flopped down on the blanket, blushing and panting. Hinata had never felt so happy in his life. “That was so aggressive,” Kageyama puffed, mirth clear in his voice.

“I don’t even know how that happened,” wheezed Hinata. “I just fucking _spiked_ it.” Letting out a lazy giggle, Hinata rolled over to face Kageyama. They’d fallen from opposite sides, so they were upside down to one another. Kageyama looked cute upside down. “Hi…” Hinata sighed, a goofy grin crossing his face.

A little smile pulled at Kageyama’s pink cheeks. “Hey.”

Hinata wondered if Kageyama was feeling the same high as he was. “You look funny from this angle.”

“I could say the same about you,” Kageyama snorted.

Hinata hummed softly, feeling like he was being hugged by clouds. “Kageyama…” The setter cocked his head as Hinata dopily sighed his name. “Kaaageyamaaa Tobiooo… You look so grumpy for someone with such a cute name.” Kageyama seemed about to object, but Hinata butted in before he could. “Can I call you by your first name? Tobio…”

Kageyama’s eyes widened and he sat bolt upright, his face turning scarlet. Hinata squeaked and sat up, fear twisting up his gut as he stared at Kageyama. Had he done something wrong? Kageyama’s face shifted rapidly between shock, anger, and… hurt? The setter’s mouth fell open, and the blunt, stark tone of the “Don’t” that came out absolutely shattered Hinata’s heart. “That’s not alright,” the setter spat. “Stop it.”

Nodding solemnly, Hinata shrunk away. “R-Right. Sorry.” He hugged his arms to his chest and stared at the ground. How had he managed to completely ruin such a great situation so quickly? Devastation weighed down every inch of Hinata. For the first time in a long time, he felt like giving up. “I… really do think you have a cute name.” He looked up at Kageyama, trying to keep his hope aglow.

Kageyama’s expression was bitterly cold. “Just don’t do it,” he hissed. Maybe he really did hate Hinata. It seemed impossible, however, as Hinata recalled the party. Everything had seemed so genuine.

“I’m really sorry,” mumbled Hinata. “Can we go back to laughing about how I spiked a grape? That was fun.”

Something in Kageyama’s face softened as he looked at Hinata. He could feel the setter’s pity drilling into him, which made his heart drop. Did Kageyama feel bad for Hinata? That wasn’t how this was supposed to go!

The sun was starting to cast an orange glow across the horizon, and Hinata’s heart fell further when he realized how late it had gotten. “We should put everything away,” Hinata muttered, starting to press the lids back on the plastic containers. When he looked up, he saw that Kageyama was spacing out, so he chucked s lid at his head. “Hey! At least help out!”

Kageyama shot a glare at Hinata, crossing his arms. “Throwing things isn’t gonna make me cooperate,” he grumbled.

“Says the person whose job it is to throw things at people.” Hinata stuck out his tongue.

“That’s not the same, asshole.” Kageyama huffed as he picked up the lid and flung it so that it his Hinata in the shoulder. “Besides,” he sneered. “At least I’m good at it.”

Hinata prepared to counter and throw the lid back, but he paused when something caught his eye. He peered over to see that the sunset was catching on the water of the fountain in the most perfect way. The flame-like shade of the sight pumped a bit of fresh hope into Hinata. “Wow… hey! Kageyama, look! It’s so pretty!” He smiled as he watched the streaks of gold and orange dancing across the glimmering water.

“Yeah…” came a sigh from Kageyama, to Hinata’s right. Hinata glanced over to the setter, trying not to let his hope grow too high as he saw Kageyama’s head turning to look at the fountain. Wait, had he been looking Hinata’s way a couple seconds ago?

Grinning, Hinata grabbed Kageyama’s hand and yanked him to his feet. “C’mon! I wanna see it up close!” He remembered something that Suga had mentioned as he scurried towards the fountain with Kageyama in tow.

“Huh?” Kageyama’s face was a mask of bewilderment. “We can see it fine from back there!”

“I don’t care! I wanna be right in front of it!” Hinata nearly tripped over his feet in his excited hurry.

His footsteps slowed as he reached the pavement around the fountain, gripping Kageyama’s hand. “It’s so pretty!” He bounced up on his tiptoes, beaming at Kageyama.

The setter seemed to be a bit tickled by Hinata’s eagerness. “It is,” he agreed. After a little pause, he looked down and mumbled a little “Thank you for bringing me here.” It was so quiet that Hinata wondered if he was even meant to hear it. Nevertheless, it made his hope soar. Maybe there was still a chance  to fix things!

“You’re welcome,” Hinata sang, throwing an arm around Kageyama. “Ohh! Y’know what we should do?” He fished his phone out of his pocket. “Selfie tiiiime!”

Hinata snapped a selfie and eagerly looked at the result. It was actually kind of silly, with Hinata grinning and Kageyama with his normal, grumpy look. Only about three fourths of Kageyama’s face showed, too, since Hinata’s arm wasn’t quite long enough. The golden fountain made a perfect backdrop for an imperfect image, and it was amazing. Hinata wanted it framed.

As Hinata put his phone back into his pocket, he tried to muster every ounce of courage in his chest and turned to face Kageyama. “This really is a pretty spot,” he said, blushing.

Kageyama seemed wary, but he nodded. “I’m impressed you found somewhere so nice.”

“It was all Suga, really. The fountain’s my favorite part.” Hinata took a trepidatious step closer to Kageyama. “Suga said, uh…” Fuck, his voice wasn’t coming out. Puffing out a steadying breath, he brought his eyes up to meet Kageyama’s. “Suga said that this fountain’s the best backdrop for a… a kiss.”

Hinata’s heartbeat thrummed in his ears as he watched Kageyama’s eyes widen. The setter started to seem like he was ten feet taller than Hinata. He never really thought about how big the distance between their faces was. He rolled up onto his tiptoes in an attempt to meet Kageyama halfway, every cell in his body expecting the setter to move in for a kiss. He shut his eyes and held his breath and reached down to take Kageyama’s hand. This was all so perfect…!

Why was it taking so long? Hinata’s eyes fluttered open and he saw that Kageyama was completely stupefied. Hinata couldn’t figure out much from his expression, but it was getting pretty clear that no one was going to be getting kissed anytime soon. A massive weight grew on Hinata’s back, making him deflate and shrink back down to his heels. “W-What is it?” he asked tentatively, his voice trembling.

Kageyama’s shocked expression turned hostile, stabbing Hinata in the heart. “I already told you to stop,” he said in a low growl. “Why do you keep doing this shit? I get the point already!”

Hinata’s jaw fell slack and he took a step back, trembling. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t realize--”

“Knock it off! You can’t fix this by making me pity you!” Kageyama curled his lip.

Hinata was pretty sure he could hear his heart shattering. “B-But, you--”

“No! I’m done! I thought you were my best friend! It’s not funny, so stop making fun of me!”

“What?”

“You herd me. Quit making fun of me!” Before Hinata could question anything, Kageyama stomped away. Hinata felt his breath being ripped out and carried away with Kageyama, despair making his chest feel completely empty.

The shadows that the sunset cast across the park seemed to stretch and grow with Hinata’s pain, the gloominess consuming the area as he packed up the remnants of the picnic alone. The evening air chilled Hinata to the bone as the sun dipped under the horizon. Telling Suga about what had happened brought the stinging of the situation back to the surface, and with Hinata in this state, there was nothing that Suga would’ve been able to say to cheer him up. All that he could do was try to counter Hinata every time that he said that Kageyama hated him, which he was pretty certain of at this point.

“Listen,” Suga said as he dropped Hinata off, putting his hands on his shoulders. “You told me that Kageyama said that he loved you. Do you think Kageyama’s a liar?”

“He was drunk; it could’ve meant anything.” Hinata kept his eyes drilled to the ground.

Suga squeezed Hinata’s shoulder. “I saw you two at the party. It’s clear to me what he’d meant, but you can think of it however you want. The only way you can know for sure, though, is if you ask Kageyama about it.” He must’ve seen Hinata recoiling at the idea, because he ruffled Hinata’s hair and said: “You don’t have to do it right away. This hurts; I understand. And it hurts more because he’s your best friend. You don’t need to be okay right now, but I know that you can be okay soon. You’re strong. You can bounce back alright. You probably don’t want to hear this right now, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of you and Kageyama, either, by my predictions. Just give it time.”

Hinata had gone numb at some point, so most of Suga’s words didn’t stick much. He just nodded, wanting nothing more than to go inside and disappear.

“If you want, I can try to talk to Kageyama and calm him down a bit," offered Suga. "Would you want that?” A little nod was Hinata’s response. “In the end, you’re the one that has to take the biggest step, but I’ll try to carry you as much as I can.” Suga pulled Hinata into a hug, smoothing his hair down. “Go on inside. Get some rest. Don’t do anything rash.”

**  
Hinata nodded and slunk into his house, barely registering Suga’s words.**


End file.
